We Can Work It Out
by CharmedMummy
Summary: Life is all about relationships and working them out whether it be friends, family, or romantic liasions. Part of my Everything Old is New Again series and directly follows Saturday in the Park.
1. Prologue

**AN:** Here it is, the continuing saga of the Taylor/Messer/Flack/Hawkes family. :) This story starts between the last two chapters of "Saturday in the Park" and then continues after that story, so you really need to read that one first to understand this one. Also, reading "Band on the Run" might help just for general background. If you have any questions about anything just review me with them and I'll try to answer you and/or answer it in an author's note in a later chapter in case it's a problem more than one person has.

Once again, I must thank my fantastic betas, **Kerry Blue** and **printandpolish**, without whom I would probably look like an idiot and who also encourage me when I'm doubting my writing. Thanks bunches to you two:)

Disclaimer: I do not own _CSI:NY_ or any characters recognizable from it. I also do not own New York City, the NYPD, FBI or ATF, the Navy SEALs, or the Chicago Cubs. Oh, and I also don't own the title of this story which comes from a Beatles song. What little is left does belong to me. :)

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_The day after Chapter 11 of Saturday in the Park when Kaile and Dominic had driven Devon to the airport…_

She didn't make any indication that she was awake when she felt the bed shift. She listened as he padded across the floor to the bathroom. After a few moments the toilet flushed, then the shower turned on.

Sighing, she opened her eyes briefly to see what time it was on her bedside clock. _6:04 am._ He probably had to leave fairly soon to make his flight which was fine by her. The morning after was never their strong suit.

Why oh why did she let herself do this again? She thought she had finally managed to make a decision and break off romantically from him, but then Ella went and got shot and then disappeared briefly and when they had dropped Devon off at the airport they had ended up at her apartment and they fell right back into their old routine, desperately needing the comfort it offered.

She wished it were different. She wished that they could make it work. They were best friends, he knew her deepest secrets, and she his and they knew how to make each other laugh. Their parents had been close for years before either of them was born. And the sex was _amazing_. Beyond amazing. Well, she couldn't speak for him, but for her it was like he could read her mind when they were in bed together. But he was going to be playing baseball for another decade barring injury and even after he retired he hadn't indicated for sure that he would come back to New York. And she had made a life for herself here, had started a career that she found rewarding. Besides, she couldn't imagine leaving her father here all alone. She was all he had.

But the handful of times she had gone on more than just a date or two with a guy when they were in an "off" period in their on-again/off-again romantic relationship, she always ended up comparing them to him and they just never measured up. They didn't understand her humor, they didn't stand up to her yet give her the due she deserved as an intelligent and successful woman, they freaked out or badgered her about her job, any number of things.

God, why didn't she just take him to his parents where he had been staying? She had decided once and for all months ago that she just couldn't continue this aspect of their relationship and yet she asked him up to her apartment knowing what that would lead to. He had paused, giving her the opportunity to rescind the offer, but when she didn't, he accepted, which led to where they were now. She could read him like a book, had always been able to, and she knew he had some of the same misgivings she did but just like her he wasn't quite ready to give it up.

The shower turned off and he eventually came back out and she could hear him putting his clothes back on. He paused and she could almost hear him thinking about whether to wake her up or not. But he was as chicken as she was, so he just jotted a note and left it on the bedside table, briefly kissed her cheek, and left the bedroom. Seconds later she could hear the front door to the apartment opening and closing.

Opening her eyes she picked up the note and read it.

_K-_

_Had to leave to make my flight. I'll call you when I get the chance._

_Dom_

Kaile rolled out of bed and headed for the kitchen to satisfy her grumbling stomach. He hadn't signed the note with a "Love ya" or anything of that kind, but she knew why. In a lot of ways their families along with the Hawkeses and Mac were closer than if they had been blood related. It was yet another dimension to the weirdness that was them. They had loved each other as cousins and best friends long before that morphed into something else.

As she ate her cereal she contemplated whether he would actually call. He would eventually, but more than likely not for a few days at least. That was perfectly fine with her because it would give her some time to get her head on straight.

She sighed as she put her bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. Speaking of getting her head on straight, she had better do it soon. She would need to go in to work today now that Ella was safe and back in the hospital and it wouldn't do to be out of it on the job thinking about Dominic. And even more importantly, if she was too obvious her dad would pick up on it and she really didn't want to have that conversation with him today.

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Dominic robotically swung his bat around as he stood in the on deck circle. Why the hell had he agreed to go up to her apartment? She had told him months ago she couldn't take their sporadic hook-ups anymore and as much as it had hurt, he had respected her decision. God knew he understood why she wanted to end their romantic liaisons. The "are we or are we not together?" question had been bothering him for a long time, too.

But that didn't mean he wanted to end things. He just never seemed to be able to make a compelling argument for why they should try a serious long distance relationship. It probably didn't help that she would have to deal with their family's questions while he could simply avoid phone calls for long periods of time and just blame it on his busy schedule.

Suddenly the CRACK of a bat hitting a ball got his attention and he barely got out of the way as a foul ball went whizzing by over his head as he fell back on his ass. After the initial gasp from the crowd he could hear the laughter from the thousands of people in the stands as well as his teammates in the dugout behind him. Great, this was just what he needed. And he knew that barring one of the pitchers throwing a perfect game or something, his little fall would be what all that the reporters would want to talk about after the game and what all the sports shows led with.

_Get your head in the game, Messer. Think about Kaile later when it won't mean getting beaned in the head and making a fool of yourself on national television._

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Sheldon Hawkes winced as he watched a ball nearly decapitate his nephew. He wanted to throttle the TV announcers who seemed to be finding the situation just a little bit too funny. Dominic had been in New York worrying about his injured and then missing sister for heaven's sake. Cut the kid some slack his first day back.

He continued watching as Dom got a single, then turned back to his paperwork. Dominic's baseball games were often a big help in getting through the endless reams of reports he had to read and forms he had to fill out and sign. It helped that his oldest nephew played for the Cubs who still had a lot of day games, so they aired during the work day.

Hawkes sat back and sighed as he rubbed his eyes. The newest ME in the building, Dr. Timothy Wyatt, was eager to show his capabilities and tended to overcompensate by writing reports four times as long as what was really necessary. Years ago Sheldon wouldn't have believed he would miss the weird and sometimes creepy stories his colleague and friend Sid Hammerback told, but at least the man knew how to write a report.

He looked around his office, his eyes glancing off of his framed diplomas and pictures of his family, his attention pausing for some reason on a photo of Kaile Flack and Dominic Messer. It was a picture taken last Christmas when the annual revolving Messer/Flack/Hawkes/Taylor Christmas gathering was at the Hawkes home. Kaile was sitting on Dom's lap and they were both grinning widely. If someone didn't know they had been raised like cousins they would probably think the two were dating.

Not that the dating thing didn't fit too, though according to the family rumor mill that was a thing of the past. How that got around he didn't know because it's not like Kaile or Dom liked to talk about the romantic side to their relationship. It was just something everyone knew about but didn't discuss. Part of that was everyone knowing that Flack wouldn't welcome the topic. Despite her age and abilities, Don was still a bit protective towards his daughter, especially when it came to who she dated. In fact, Sheldon was pretty sure Kaile had had to specifically tell her father to not hassle Dominic about their relationship.

Sheldon sighed again. Worrying about the romantic lives of his niece and nephew was not something he could spend time on just now. He had been away from his work a lot in the past week with everything that had gone on with Ella and he really needed to catch up. The work of the Chief Medical Examiner was never done.


	2. Chapter 1

_A couple of days after the epilogue of Saturday in the Park…_

Kaile glanced around the restaurant, finally spotting her cousin in a booth and making her way over. "Hey, Ella."

The younger woman smiled and put away the PDA she had been working on while she waited. "You made it."

"Of course I did! Would I stand you up?" she asked with a faux-indignant look as she sat on the other side of the booth.

"If the job demanded it, of course you would, just like the rest of us," Ell replied.

Kaile sighed. "The city really needs to calm down. What is it about the summer that makes people crazy?" Ell just grinned in law enforcement camaraderie as the waitress approached and took their orders and brought a replacement soda for Ell's now empty glass.

"So," Ell began once the waitress was gone, "have you talked to Dom lately?"

"What? Why would I have talked to Dominic?" Kaile inwardly winced at her tone. She had just made it completely obvious that something was up and Ell totally picked up on it as her raised eyebrow attested to.

"I was just asking since he talks to you more often than anyone else in the family. What's with the defensiveness, K?"

Kaile ran a hand through her long, dark hair. "Is that why you asked me to lunch? To interrogate me about your brother?"

Ell sat back without a visible reaction on her face. "You know that's not why. I'm making an effort to connect with everyone since I've been so bad at it for years. But if you don't want to talk about Dominic, that's fine."

Kaile groaned, folded her arms on the table and laid her head down on them. "No, no, I'm sorry," she mumbled. She brought her head back up and looked her cousin in the eye. "I really am sorry for jumping on you like that. It's just…" She trailed off not knowing how to finish the sentence, but as usual Ell was a step ahead of her.

"Did you guys sleep together?" Kaile blushed and looked away, but she didn't refute the statement. "Oh, K. I thought you had decided that was over for you guys."

"I did," Kaile protested. "It just kind of happened and now we can't seem to talk normally to each other anymore."

"When did it happen? Dom hasn't been in town since…" Ell trailed off as she realized exactly when the last time her older brother had been in New York.

"Now don't you go feeling bad about this, Daniella Messer," Kaile reprimanded, pointing her finger at her cousin. "Dom and I are adults, we take full responsibility for our actions." She blew out a breath. "Even our stupid ones."

Ell was quiet for a moment. "Okay, well, is there anything I can do to help? Do you need me to kick my brother's ass?"

Kaile laughed. "No, no, that's okay. We just need to get past the awkwardness and we'll be fine." Though who knew when that would be. They had been playing phone tag with each other's answering machines and voicemail for weeks. But it at least felt a little better having told someone about it, and Ella was about the best person to have told. She had a poker face like nobody else Kaile knew and she could keep a secret, even within their family. "So, anyway, if I had talked to Dominic, what was it that you needed to know?" she asked as their food came.

Ell waited until the waitress was done and gone again. Kaile would almost swear her cousin was actually blushing a bit. "I, uh, just wanted to know how many tickets he had managed to get for the All-Star game in a couple of weeks. If he couldn't get enough I didn't want him to feel bad, I could always not go, it's not like I haven't seem him play in one before."

The detective in Kaile Flack perked its head up. Ella was usually so good at lying, either to a suspect or a family member, that few could tell she wasn't saying the absolute truth. Butter wouldn't melt on her tongue she was so cool. But for some reason Ella was totally giving away that she was flustered and Kaile was intrigued. "Bullshit, Ella. I know very well that everyone in your family does their damnedest to get to that game since it would be pretty impossible to get enough time off to attend all of Dominic's playoff games. Devon has the excuse that he can't always get leave and that he would be court-martialed for going AWOL, but all together you, your sister or one of your parents have missed the All Star game, what, three times?"

Ell didn't meet her older cousin's eyes as she played with her food using her fork. "Four if you count the one time that both Ana and I couldn't make it as separate instances."

Kaile took a sip of her water. "Yeah, so that line doesn't fly with me. Spit it out."

Ell sighed. "Fine. But," she stated strongly, pointing her fork at the woman across the table, "this does not get mentioned to anyone else until I know that it's a sure thing."

Kaile held up her hand like she was promising to tell the truth in court. "I solemnly swear."

Sighing again, Ell took a drink from her glass before she went on. "I wanted to see if Dominic could swing an extra ticket for JD."

"JD? As in, John Deveraux? As in, Detective John Deveraux of the NYPD, the man who saved your life? _That_ JD?"

Now Ell rolled her eyes. "Yes, _that_ JD."

"I didn't know things had gotten this serious," Kaile said, smiling.

"They're not!" Ell protested. "Which is entirely why I'm leaning towards not inviting him. I know if I bring him the entire family is going to be one step away from thinking we're engaged and we're barely anything, K. I just know he likes baseball and the Cubs in particular and I want to do something nice for him, but now I'm thinking this whole idea was just bad to begin with."

Anyone else and Kaile would have gone for the jugular, continuing the teasing until it was well past acceptable. But Ella had just recently reconnected meaningfully with the family and Kaile knew that her cousin found the idea of being the center of family gossip like this terrifying and it could push her back again. She would have to tread lightly. "Tell you what, why I don't I call your brother and get him to 'offer' a ticket to Deveraux," Kaile suggested, using her fingers to make air quotes around the word offer, "as a belated thank-you for saving your life. You could still bring the ticket to him, but at least if Dominic made the overture it wouldn't look like you were asking him out on a date and the family wouldn't have as much to hassle you about." She took a bite of her food.

Ell seemed to roll the idea around in her head. "That just might work. Are you sure you're okay with calling Dominic for me? If you make the call and make the suggestion to Dominic then everyone can't say I asked Dom for the tickets just to ask JD out."

"Yeah," Kaile said, waving her hand in the air, "it's no problem. Like I said, Dom and I just need to get over the awkwardness, so there's nothing like meeting it head on." She did her best to give off the impression that it wasn't a big deal even though she was dreading the impending phone call.

"Great," Ell replied, smiling again as she began to actually eat her food. "Since the game is in New York this year do you think anybody else is coming?"

Kaile swallowed before answering. "I think Mac is and maybe my dad, but that's all I've heard so far. Uncle Sheldon will probably get in using Aunt Tessa's connections. I think Shayna is too busy with her summer classes and Will is busy with his internship in Chicago. Maybe they'll bring Carla with them."

"How about you? Or would that be too awkward for you?" Ell asked.

Kaile sighed. "I don't know, I probably won't go unless somebody makes a big deal about it. With the game being in New York we'll all probably be working overtime to handle the influx of people and I don't want to pull strings to get out of duty. I can watch Dominic play some other time." Deciding a subject change was in order, she picked up another bite on her fork but paused to ask a question before eating it. "Have you heard about Mac?"

Ell quirked an eyebrow. "That he's thinking about retiring? Yeah, he kind of hinted about it to me in a roundabout way. How'd you hear about it?"

"My dad, who else? He brought it up at dinner the other night." She tried to have dinner with her father at least a couple of times a week and a lunch if they could work it into their busy schedules. Often it was no more than a hot dog at a street vendor, but it didn't matter to them.

"You mean Uncle Don talked about retiring sometime in the foreseeable future and you just inferred that meant that Mac must be thinking about it." They all knew how things went. Don was still in because Mac was, Danny was only hanging around until Lindsay was ready to retire in a couple of years, and Sheldon was staying in because he still had kids to put through college. It would be a weird day for the NYPD, but in the not too distant future Kaile Flack would be the only member of the House of New York still around.

She tipped her glass to her cousin. "That's about the size of it." She sighed. "I hope Dad does retire with Mac and doesn't stay in just because of me."

Ell smiled. "Don't worry, retirement doesn't mean he'll stop looking out for you, calling to check up on you and hassling any guy that shows a passing interest in you."

Kaile threw her napkin at the other woman. "Stop, you, or I won't call Dominic!" That was enough to get Ell to throw up her hands in surrender and the women shared a laugh and finally managed to really get down to eating knowing that they could be called back to work at any moment. Kaile temporarily pushed any thoughts of Dominic to the back of her mind. She was already kicking herself for volunteering to call him, but she wouldn't think about that right now. After work was soon enough for that awkwardness. 


	3. Chapter 2

Climbing out of her unmarked car, Kaile perused the area around the crime scene she had been called to. There were the usual law enforcement personnel and gawkers. Nothing in the area might end up being important, but you never knew when a perp might decide to come back and visit his victim or watch the investigation. Keeping an eye out was just standard operating procedure. 

"Hey O'Shea, what have we got?" Kaile asked as she approached the uniformed street cop who stood next to the crime scene tape that he had presumably strung up upon his arrival.

"Little Flack! It's a bad one, see for yourself." Kaile was thankful for her sunglasses because it kept the older man from seeing her eyeroll. Veterans who had known her father when he still worked the streets tended to refer to her in that manner. But she knew that where it mattered O'Shea respected her and would follow her orders if need be. He was just annoying the rest of the time.

But he wasn't kidding about it being a bad one. After ducking under the yellow tape she followed the stench to the body near the alley wall, covered mostly in black plastic garbage bags. Her body could only be seen from the chest up, but that was enough. The sick bastard responsible for this crime had cut off the poor girl's ears. She would have to ask that the coroners made sure to use her hair to cover up the missing appendages for at least one picture so that Kaile would have something to show people that wouldn't make them sick.

"Any signs of ID or a murder weapon, O'Shea?" she asked as she rose and came back out to the street.

"No, and I knew well enough to not move the bags before the science dudes got here to do their thing." O'Shea was a bit of a remnant of the old guard. Kaile doubted he had ever used the word "forensics." But she didn't care what he called it as long as he respected how it worked and the benefit it had for catching criminals. She had learned to let the little things in the job slide. People like O'Shea would always be around and being annoyed at them or correcting them constantly would just give her an ulcer and do nothing to actually solve the situation.

"I've got my rookie askin' some questions, see if there's anybody worth it for you to talk to." Officer O'Shea leaned back against the brick of the building. "And here he comes now. Billings, did you learn anything for the detective here?"

"Not really, sir. Most of these people just seem to want to know what's going on, but I didn't tell them anything."

"Good. Billings, this here is Detective Flack. Kaile Flack, this is my rookie, Karl Billings." Kaile shook the younger man's hand. "Kaile here is NYPD royalty, just so you know."

Kaile groaned. "Are we really going to get into that right now, O'Shea? I've got a homicide to investigate."

"What, I'm just letting the kid in on some things he needs to know." The older cop straightened a little. "Her dad is one of the brass up at One Police Plaza, Assistant to the Chief of Ds himself. And your mom was a detective, right, Flack?"

"Yeah, she was," Kaile confirmed, not really paying attention as she had started recording the case's initial information into her palm pilot.

"She died during a robbery, right? I was just a rookie back then myself, but I remember it being a big thing."

Kaile sighed. "Yeah, she was shot during a robbery. Look, I'm going to go interview some people before the CSIs get here, okay?"

"Sure. Say, how old were you when your mom died?"

She resisted the urge to flip him off and ignore the question. "She lived long enough to give birth to me, so I was a few minutes old when she died. Now if you'll excuse me." She quickly walked away before O'Shea could draw her back in. The man was worse than Scagnetti, and that was saying something.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk about her mother. She was happy to discuss Kaile Maka with anyone who had known her and learn something new about the mother she had never met. But she hated discussing the story of her birth and have people give her that pitying look. Her life hadn't been that bad. In fact, it had been great. She had an amazing father and a great extended family that filled in wherever needed. Sure, she would have liked to have known her mom, but she didn't dwell on what her life could have been like. Well, maybe she did think about it when she thought about the scum responsible for her mother's death who were rotting in prison rather than in the ground where they belonged.

She mentally pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind. That poor girl in the alley deserved her full attention right now. Kaile had hours of interviews and grunt work ahead of her, but that was the nature of the job and she was eager to start it if only to get that much closer to the time when she could bring a suspect in and bring justice to that young woman who had been degraded multiple ways. But she could already feel the headache coming on that canvassing a neighborhood usually brought. That was what the aspirin in her car and in her desk was for.

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Dominic sighed in relief as he finally pushed open the door to his apartment. Today had been a long one. His night game had gone into extra innings and that was always draining. At least they had won. But he had been a little tired before the game even started after spending the day at the Center for the Deaf.

He loved volunteering there, spending time with the kids by helping them with their homework during the school year or playing catch or whatever. But today the kids had seemed especially restless and rambunctious and it was all the staff could do to keep up with them.

Add to that how excited the kids were to see him and he had been hounded his whole time there. He didn't mind the attention, but it was a bit draining. However, it was only to be expected. He hadn't been around in a few weeks due to schedule conflicts. But the kids' excitedness coupled with his signing skills having gone rusty out of disuse and he had developed a monster headache.

Jimmy would just laugh and have no sympathy for Dominic if he were there. Jim Munson was the whole reason Dom knew how to sign and he had no sympathy for Dom's issues with catching on to ASL and getting a headache from it since he himself had often developed headaches from having to watch everyone's lips so closely just to stay abreast of what was happening around him.

Jimmy and Dominic had come up through the minor league system together. Some crass people thought Jimmy's place on the team was just another crazy publicity stunt from a minor league baseball team, but Dom knew different the first time he saw Jimmy pitch. The guy had amazing stuff. It was almost like not being able to hear helped him to focus in on the strike zone and put every pitch exactly where he wanted it. Not to mention that his fastball topped out at 98 mph.

They had ended up being assigned to room together on their away trips and Dom had asked Jimmy to teach him American Sign Language. They had plenty of time on their hands since they didn't go out and get drunk like some of the other guys. It wasn't that they didn't like to party, they just preferred to not do it when they knew if they did they would still be hungover for the next day's game.

It got to the point where Dom was completely comfortable with ASL and they started signing during games. A couple of times they had actually caught opposing players off first base because they would be having a conversation using sign language and the runner would have no clue that Dom was telling Jimmy about the guy behind him who was too far off the bag.

They were lucky enough to get to move up through the minors together and play a few years as teammates on the Cubs before Jimmy was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. But now Jimmy was in New York playing for the Yankees and Dom was looking forward to seeing him when he was in town for the All Star Game. Jimmy might get to play, he was certainly good enough, but the process for pitchers was different than that for position players and it all depended on who the managers picked and whether Jimmy pitched right before the All Star Game or was needed right after it. Dom hoped that he would play because then he could sign for the national anthem. Dominic was happy to do it when he was asked, but it always made him nervous because he didn't want to make a mistake. It was worse for him than hitting with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. That was why Dominic agreed to do it for special Cubs games like Opening Day or during Deaf Awareness Week, but he shied away from doing it all the time, especially when someone like Jimmy was available. He had been happy when the Cubs organization, like many teams in the league after Jimmy became such a popular player, hired their own ASL interpreter for the national anthem and for optional TV broadcasts that people could tune into. Even if Jimmy didn't play he could probably sign for the anthem since the game was in New York and he wouldn't have to travel unnecessarily to be there.

For now Dominic kept up his ASL skills by volunteering at the Center. It was intensely rewarding and he really enjoyed it, but right now he just wanted to fall onto his bed and sleep till he had to get up for work the next day.

And then the phone rang. Groaning, he went to answer it until he noticed the number on the caller ID screen. _Kaile_. He was so not in the right frame of mind for talking to her at the moment. He went back and forth with himself about whether to answer, but he vacillated too long and the phone clicked over to the answering machine.

"This is Dominic Messer. If you want a statement, please call my agent or the Cubs organization. Anyone else, leave a message and I'll get back to you when I can." BEEP. There was a pause before her voice finally came over the machine. "_I know you're home, Dominic. You always get home about the same time after a night game if you're playing a day game the next day."_ She paused again._ "Fine, if you don't want to talk to me, then talk to your sister, she's the one-"_ He cut her off as he picked up the phone.

"What's wrong with one of my sisters? Is everything okay?" He winced at the dead silence on the other end of the line. Picking up the phone might not have been the smart move, but after Ella's shooting he was a little on edge about his family.

"Hello to you, too."

"Kaile-"

"No, forget it. Look, Ella wants you to get an extra ticket to the All Star game so that Deveraux can go, but she doesn't want you or your parents to act all weird about it because she and him aren't really a thing at this point, okay? So just get the ticket and send it to her."

"I can do that. And Kaile, I'm sorry for not picking up. I'm just really tired, it's been a long day."

"And you don't think maybe I've had a long day? I'm in the middle of a double shift working a gruesome homicide and you have the audacity to whine at me about your day?"

She had a point and he had been in the wrong in the first place, but people acting like his job was a piece of cake that didn't require any work was something that had always irked him, so he didn't respond well to her insinuation, intentional or not. "That job was your choice, Kaile, don't whine at me if you can't handle it." He regretted the words as soon as he said them. He was completely right when he thought that he wasn't in the right frame of mind to talk to her. He was about to apologize to her when she spoke.

"Screw you, Dominic Messer." She didn't give him a chance to respond before she hung up.

"Damn it!" he burst out, tossing the phone across the room where it thankfully hit the couch and didn't break. He needed to see her face to face, this had gone on long enough. Unfortunately, that would have to wait awhile. He likely wouldn't be able to make it to New York City before the All Star game.

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Sheldon rubbed his eyes. He really didn't have it in him to work these kinds of nights anymore, but they had gotten slammed recently and he was trying to catch up a bit. He would probably head home soon though before his wife sent somebody looking for him.

Glancing over one last report, something caught his eye. The autopsy drawing showed that in addition to being stabbed repeatedly, the victim's ears had been cut off. Why did that ring a bell? He mentally went through other cases he had looked at recently and finally hit on it. Going through the stack of reports he had finished, he finally found it.

Two days before a young woman had come in with stab wounds. Two cases where the cause of death was stabbing wasn't a big deal. Trauma to the ears was. The first victim's ears hadn't been cut off, but they had been mutilated. It could be coincidence, but Hawkes had learned to trust his gut and something told him these cases were connected. Going back to the second victim's file he saw that it had been noted that she had not been identified yet. That was even more uncommon these days than it had been when he started in the OCME, what with all the technology available to find out a person's name through several means.

Flipping to a different page, he noted that the detective on that case was his very own niece. Looking at the other case he saw that the detectives working the first ear trauma victim were none other than Scagnetti and Deveraux. Well, that would be interesting. But Sheldon decided to hold off until the morning. He could barely keep his eyes open at this point and he would rather have a chance to check his gut in the morning with fresh eyes to make sure the possible connection between the cases wasn't just a product of his sleep-deprived imagination.


	4. Chapter 3

**AN:** I don't have any firsthand knowledge of deafness, what causes it, or the deaf community, and am just working from what I've gleaned from different sources over the years and what I could find on the internet, so if there are any mistakes I apologize and if any of them are too glaring just let me know and I'll be happy to try and fix them. Thanks to all who are reading and reviewing and enjoying the story. This is my first real attempt at throwing a case into the mix, so let me know what you think about it. :)

Thanks as always to my betas. Special thanks to **printandpolish** for some developments that start coming out in this chapter. Scagnetti would have probably languished in the background if **p&p** didn't love him so much and encourage me to utilize him to his fullest potential. :)

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Kaile checked her watch and sighed. Her uncle had asked her to come down to the morgue and she couldn't refuse him, but she was knee deep in her case and really wanted to get back to it. She pushed off from the wall she had been leaning against and idly walked over to some pictures on the wall in between a couple of the ME offices. 

"Hello, can I help you?" Kaile turned to face a man dressed like a Medical Examiner who looked to be at least a few years younger than her. He had to be new since she didn't recognize him. She noted the name Dr. Wyatt on his nametag.

"No, I'm just waiting for Dr. Hawkes, thanks." That confirmed it, the guy had to be new if he didn't know who she was. It wasn't conceit, she was just used to being recognized around the Medical Examiner's Office.

"He got a call, he'll probably be out soon." They stood in somewhat awkward silence for a few moments before the man spoke again. "That picture you were looking at? Apparently that's my godson." The man smiled like it was some kind of big joke.

"Godson?" Kaile knew exactly what the guy was talking about, but she was wondering how big of a hole he would dig for himself.

"Yeah. First day here I was informed by somebody that everyone here is considered a godparent to one of those guys," he said, vaguely waving his hand towards the picture of a group of guys in uniforms jovially smiling at the camera, some with their arms around each other's shoulders. "Can you believe that? I haven't asked, but it's got to be some kind of PR thing. Why else would a bunch of doctors adopt some random GI?"

Yeah, that hole was pretty damn deep. "Okay, first? Those guys are Navy, so they're not GIs. Second, they didn't 'adopt some random' guy, his name is Petty Officer Devon Messer. Third, there is a very good reason why everyone on staff here keeps track of Devon, one you probably could have found out if you didn't have your head stuck so far up your own ass. And finally," she said, pulling out her wallet and opening it to a specific picture, her voice never rising but still conveying her annoyance at the arrogant prick in front of her, "he's my cousin," she finished, showing him a picture of all eight cousins.

The guy mumbled something unintelligible, turned and fled. Kaile put away her wallet as she heard a chuckle from behind her.

"Kaile Flack, always the tactful one." Kaile groaned and turned. The day just kept getting better.

"What the hell are you doing here, Scags?"

Scagnetti raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I don't know, just taking a stroll through the morgue because I love the smell and the décor so much. What do you think I'm doing here?"

"Annoying the hell out of me?" Their argument was stopped from going any further by the arrival of the Chief Medical Examiner.

"You guys really need to grow up and get past all this," Sheldon commented mildly as he joined the group. He looked to Detective Deveraux who was standing uncomfortably behind his partner. "I apologize for these two, Detective. John and Kaile have been in a feud of sorts since she was sixteen." The older man turned to his niece. "You really need to get over John catching you making out with that boy that night. He turned out to be quite the loser anyway, didn't he?"

Kaile just smiled tightly at her uncle until he turned away, then shot a look at Scagnetti to make it clear that that embarrassing incident was not behind her continued dislike of him. The look was unnecessary. Scagnetti was fully aware of why Kaile wasn't and likely never would be fond of him. Only he, Kaile and her father knew all of it and it wasn't something they ever spoke about, but Kaile never really let him forget about it.

She mentally shook herself and paid attention to what her uncle was saying. "Okay, so I asked the three of you here because I noticed something interesting about a couple of your cases. I asked the CSIs on your cases to come down here as well, but Lindsay just called to let me know they were pretty slammed and to just have the three of you brief them later." He led them through the bustling morgue over to the body drawers that took up one whole wall. "Okay, so first we have Casey Walker, age thirty, found three days ago in an alley," he read off of the paperwork as he slid the drawer open. Then he moved and opened another drawer two to the left from the first. "And here we have Kaile's Jane Doe, approximate age 25-35, found yesterday, also in an alley."

Whatever Kaile might say about Scagnetti (and she could say a lot), she had never said he was stupid. "They both had their ears messed with," he commented. He looked to the ME. "What, you thinking this is connected, Doc?"

"I wasn't sure at first. Considering both victims were stabbed to death, they both could have had overzealous killers who felt like cutting more than what was necessary to kill their victims. It's happened before. But before I called you all here, I did a little digging." Hawkes crossed his arms over the files he held. "When the two of you identified your victim, you discovered that she was deaf, correct?"

"Yeah," JD confirmed. "We were wondering if the hack job on the vic's ears had something to do with that."

"I'm almost certain it does," Hawkes told them.

"Wait, do you think my vic is deaf, too? That seems like a bit of a leap, Uncle Shel." Kaile didn't mean to put down her uncle's theory, but she wasn't following his logic at the moment.

"Like I said, I did some digging. I went back over the body with Fenton, the ME of record, and looked closer at the inner ear. It wasn't noticed before because it isn't standard for an autopsy, but we believe your Jane Doe suffered from otosclerosis." Hawkes grinned at the blank looks on the detectives' faces. "It's an excessive growth in the bones of the middle ear which interferes with the transmission of sound. I obviously can't be one hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty confident that our Jane Doe was at least partially deaf."

"Shit," Scagnetti breathed, conveying everyone's shared sentiment. "So, what, we've got some sick bastard out there murdering deaf girls?"

"I don't know. But it seemed a little too coincidental for my taste, so I thought you three should be made aware of the possible connection." Sheldon turned and closed the two drawers. "I would like to know how these cases progress and I'll let my MEs know to look for any other victims with ear trauma." He checked his watch. "I hate to run, but I've got a meeting downtown. Let me know if there's anything else we can do to help." He patted his niece on the shoulder and walked briskly away.

Nothing was said for a moment. Finally, Scagnetti opened his mouth. "So, I guess we'll be working together on this." His tone was a bit resigned and Kaile noticed JD raising an eyebrow at his partner's uncharacteristic demeanor. She didn't much care. She wasn't exactly happy with the situation either. That unhappiness led her to make a rather dumb suggestion.

"If you guys are busy, I can just take both cases."

Scagnetti snorted. "If anyone should give up the case it should be you. You're the one without a partner at the moment and you haven't even managed to ID your vic yet."

Kaile seethed. Her previous partner had gone on maternity leave several months before and planned on transferring to something less stressful than homicide when she got back. It wasn't Kaile's fault that she hadn't had a permanent partner since then. And it wasn't her fault that she hadn't discovered the identity of her vic yet. But it was just like Scagnetti to make her feel like it was all her fault. "Screw you, Scagnetti. I was just offering, you don't have to be such an ass."

"Whoa, let's calm down," JD interjected, stepping between the other two detectives. "Let's just back up and start over." He waited till his partner and Kaile relaxed fractionally. "Good, okay, so, have you gotten any leads as to the identity of your Jane Doe yet, Flack?"

"No," she bit out. "She's not in any database, but now that I know she's likely deaf then I have new areas I can show her photo around in."

"Our vic volunteered at a deaf community center. We've already made contact over there, why don't we go with you and see if maybe your vic showed up there at all. The deaf community seems pretty close, so even if she wasn't a regular there, somebody probably knows her."

"You two go," Scagnetti suggested. "I'll go run this new info through NCIC and see if anything pops up." He turned and left before the other two could comment.

JD opened his mouth, but Kaile held up her hand to stop him. "Don't, okay? Let's just go to this center." JD followed as she walked quickly from the room and tried not to notice all the looks they had been getting from the morgue staff.


	5. Chapter 4

**AN:** Thanks to all who are reading and/or reviewing. I'm glad people are enjoying my AU. :)

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"So, do you think we'll get anything out of NCIC?" JD asked Kaile as he drove them towards the center, attempting to make small talk.

"I don't know. I didn't get anything from the initial parameters, but adding in the deaf angle and how the mutilation of the ears might be linked to that might give us something." It really wasn't entirely accurate to say that she hadn't gotten anything. In fact, the opposite was true. The National Crime Information Center database had actually given her too much. Despite the fact that technology made searching the database easier and quicker, the sheer volume of material available these days was unbelievable and, unfortunately, entering in the information for a young, Caucasian female resulted in thousands of hits that were hard to narrow down. Without having the fingerprint and/or DNA of every single person in the country, there were going to be times where the computer wasn't all that much help and while Kaile hated the times she couldn't identify a victim, she wouldn't go so far as to advocate that kind of national database. It was just one of those things that law enforcement had to deal with.

They remained silent until they parked outside the community center. As they unbuckled their seat belts, JD finally asked the question Kaile knew he had been holding in since the morgue. "So, do you mind telling me what your problem with my partner is?"

"Yes, I do mind," she told him, opening her door and getting out. She closed the door and spoke to Deveraux over the top of the car. "Look, I know he's your partner and your friend, but this is something between him and me and it's not something you need to know about, so just drop it, okay?" At his slight, grudging nod, she turned towards the community center. She knew she was being an ass, but she couldn't help it. She needed to call her cousins and go out for a few drinks or something. It just seemed like the whole universe was conspiring lately to tick her off.

Entering the center, Kaile let Deveraux take the lead as they approached a woman behind a reception desk. She was already looking up at the detectives. Kaile noticed a red light shining on the desk that went off when the doors closed completely that had probably alerted the woman to their presence.

"Ms. Connors, right?" JD said, flashing his badge. "I was here a couple of days ago with my partner." Kaile assumed that JD already knew that the receptionist could read lips since he talked to her without any hesitation.

"Oh, yes, Detective…I'm sorry, I forgot your name." The woman gave them a smile, but something flashed in her eyes that Kaile couldn't quite identify. She was also quite surprised at how well the woman spoke having expected some kind of speech impediment from someone who couldn't hear. But then she knew that not everyone who was deaf was born that way and so might not have any kind of noticeable difference in their speech.

"Deveraux, Detective Deveraux," JD reminded her.

"Yes. So, how can I help you? Have you found out what happened to poor Casey? The kids around here have been really devastated about her death." The woman looked appropriately sad, but it was more as if she thought she should look sad rather than actually feeling that emotion herself. _Or you could just be paranoid, Flack._

"Unfortunately not, we're still working on that. I actually came by with my colleague, Detective Flack," Kaile nodded in acknowledgement, "because we have another victim that we think someone around here might be able to help us identify."

Kaile took a picture of her vic out of her jacket pocket and handed it over to the receptionist who looked took it and looked down at the photo. "Do you recognize the woman?" Kaile about smacked herself upside the head. The woman couldn't very well know that Kaile was talking while she was looking down at the picture. Kaile tapped the photo to get the woman's attention before repeating the question. "Do you recognize the woman?"

"I'm afraid not, though she does seem familiar. But I'm only the day receptionist. We're open pretty late, so maybe if you come back later today to ask around then?" Before Kaile could continue the questioning, she heard her name from behind her.

"Kaile Flack?" She turned to face the man calling her name with the speech impediment she had expected from the receptionist.

"Munsie!" The two walked towards one another and hugged briefly. "Wow, I haven't seen you in forever." She quirked an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be pitching or something?" Jim Munson grinned at her. He began signing as his speech had never been that well developed and he much preferred signing. "Whoa, whoa, my signing is incredibly rusty, Munsie, I think we're going to need a translator." Back when Dominic and Jim and been close friends in the minors, Kaile had learned some ASL from both of them when she visited Dom. Occasionally Dominic would use her as someone to practice with when he was in New York during the off season, but he hadn't spent an off season in New York since making it to the majors.

Jim rolled his eyes and pointed to his left before beginning to sign again. "That's what Doug is here for," a man said, translating for Jim. "That would be me by the way, Doug Sinclair," the man introduced himself, holding out his hand for Kaile to shake.

"Nice to meet you," she replied. Turning slightly she motioned JD over. "This is my colleague, Detective John Deveraux." She waited for Sinclair to finish translating that and for Jim to focus on her lips again. "So, you've got a translator these days, huh? Benefits of the big bucks." It sounded harsh, but Kaile had learned early after meeting Jim Munson that that was how he liked it. Harsh to him was ten times better than patronizing in any way.

"Yeah, I picked Doug out to match my car," Sinclair translated faithfully, though rolling his eyes at the comment. Obviously the man was used to statements like that.

"So, what are you doing here?" Kaile asked him.

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Selling insurance." Kaile couldn't help but laugh, she had pretty much walked into that one. "Actually," Jim continued through Doug, "I run a small baseball clinic for deaf kids out of here a couple times a month. We go to a nearby baseball diamond, but we meet here." His face got even more serious. "But I'm guessing you didn't come here to discuss my volunteering activities. I heard about Casey Walker's death." He paused for a moment, seemingly distressed.

"Did you know her?" Kaile asked gently.

"Yes. Rather well, in fact. I met her here at the center not long after I signed with the Yankees. We broke up several months ago, but we had dated for about a year." Jim pulled out his wallet and flipped to a picture of him and their first victim.

"I'm so sorry, Jim," Kaile told him. She wondered if he had put the picture back in his wallet to remember her after her death, or if he hadn't been able to bring himself to take out the picture when their relationship broke up.

"Have you found out who…hurt her?" Jim asked after putting away his wallet, his fingers stumbling over what to say had happened to her, obviously struggling with the fact that she had been murdered.

"Unfortunately, no. Detective Deveraux and his partner are working on it. I actually came here today to see if anyone recognized another victim who was found yesterday." She handed over the picture and almost immediately there was a stunned reaction from Jim. She could see the picture trembling in his hands. Tapping the picture to get his attention, she asked him what she already knew. "Did you know her too, Jim?"

He nodded before abruptly handing the picture back to Kaile. "Her name is…was…Abigail Jones." Jim wiped a tear away from his eyes before he continued signing. "What happened to her?"

"How did you know her, Jim?" The answer she got was going to take this investigation in a whole new direction.

"We dated for a couple of months right after I broke up with Casey. She had just broken up with someone too and we eventually realized that we were both on the rebound and it wouldn't work, but we stayed friends." He looked back and forth between the faces of the two detectives. "You don't think I'm connected to all of this, do you?"

That was exactly what Kaile was afraid of.

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Sheldon Hawkes shuffled papers around his desk. Some days he felt that was all he did. Maybe he would do an autopsy today, or supervise one of the younger MEs. He knew they wouldn't like having him look over their shoulders, but he didn't much care. He just wanted to get out of his office. Or maybe he could call Kaile and find out whether she had identified that victim yet…

The phone on his desk rang and he picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Hawkes."

"Hey, Uncle Sheldon."

"Dominic! To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?" Hawkes inquired, settling back into his chair, gladly leaving his tedious paperwork.

Dom chuckled. "Getting tired of paperwork again?"

"You know it." It wasn't exactly a secret that Hawkes didn't do well with extended amounts of paperwork. He liked getting his hands dirty and while he hadn't minded paperwork for most of his professional career, when the forms and red tape had started taking up more time than actual casework, he hadn't kept his annoyance quiet.

"Well, I was just calling to find out whether you guys knew for sure that Aunt Tessa was going to get tickets to the All Star game for you guys, or whether you needed me to handle it. It's better to let my agent know sooner rather than later about this kind of thing so he can finagle them easier."

"Tessa managed four tickets. Shayna said she would stop by and see you while you were in town, but she's too swamped to go to the game itself and worry about being presentable to her mother's political connections and Will said he didn't think he could get the time away from his internship, so it will just be me, Tess, Carla and whichever friend she decides to bring. We told her she could bring her boyfriend and she's thinking about it, but he hasn't met the full family yet and I think Carla's afraid you all will scare the poor boy off."

"We'll only scare him off if it's necessary," Dominic protested.

"Like with that boy on Memorial Day a few years back," Sheldon shot back.

"Hey, now, Shayna called us over there. Besides, he wasn't a boyfriend."

"I know, I know, I'm just teasing," Sheldon assured him. It was a funny family story now, but he was grateful Shayna's cousins had been there to back her up that day. "So, let me guess, Will came to you begging for tickets?"

Dominic laughed. "Should I even ask how you knew that?"

"I told you weeks ago that you didn't have to worry about getting tickets for anyone in my family, but here you are asking anyway. I had a hunch that Will had changed his mind and didn't want to admit it to his mother and me."

"Well, to be fair it was more like his new girlfriend's mind changed," Dominic told him. "Evidently when Will told her he could get tickets to the All Star game she thought they would be in the nosebleeds and she figured it would be better to watch it on TV. Then she finds out he's got a cousin in the game and that his mom has connections and suddenly she wants to go."

Sheldon snorted. "Even more reason why Will didn't want to ask us for tickets now, considering we didn't even know he had a girlfriend."

"Yeah, well, don't let on that I spilled the beans."

"Little hard there, Dominic, considering you're the only other member of the family out in Chicago."

His nephew mock sighed. "Yeah, well, then I guess I should get him those tickets as an apology, huh?"

"Let me talk to Tess first and see if she can get two more tickets. She might have to cash in a few favors, but it would be nice if Will could, you know, actually sit with his family."

"You might want him to sit with the rest of the family. Kaile and the twins will set this girl straight if she's just hanging on to Will now because of his connections."

Hawkes shook his head. The second generation of their crazy family was even more protective of each other than the first generation had been, something that he wouldn't have thought possible. "You know, maybe Will needs to figure that out himself."

"But where's the fun in that?" Dom countered.

Sheldon just dropped that and moved on to a slightly different topic. "So, is it confirmed that everyone else is going to be able to make it? I've been swamped lately and haven't really been able to talk about anything but work with your parents and uncles."

"Mom, Dad, Ana and Jack and Ella are confirmed and evidently Ella is bringing Detective Deveraux, though I've been strictly told to not make a big deal about that. Devon can't make it this year. Uncle Mac and Uncle Don are tentative, but I've got tickets set aside for them if things don't conspire to keep them away."

"And Kaile?" Sheldon asked, pointedly asking about the one family member Dominic had left out.

A sigh came over the phone. "I don't know, Uncle Sheldon. I'm kind of on shaky ground with her lately." Hawkes was a little surprised by the admission, but he supposed he was the easiest member of the family for Dominic to really talk about it with.

"Have you talked to her?" He had found that talking solved most perceived problems.

"Kind of. I need to talk to her face to face, but I'm not going to be in town until the All Star game and even then things will be so crazy I don't know if I'll get any time to talk to her alone."

"Why don't you set up a web cam conference with her then?" Hawkes suggested. "It's not as great as being here in person, but it's better than nothing."

"I don't think she'll agree to it. She was the one that hung up on me the last time we talked."

Hawkes racked his brain. "Well, you could always ambush her. Use your sisters if you have to."

The other side of the line was quiet as Dominic seemed to roll the idea around in his head. "She'll hate it, but it just might work. The twins won't want to ambush Kaile, but Ella at least owes me for the ticket I got for her pseudo-boyfriend." He paused again. "I just might try that. Thanks, Uncle Sheldon."

"No problem. You got me out of doing paperwork for awhile, so it was the least I could do."

Dominic chuckled. "Well, unfortunately I can't keep you any longer, I've got to get ready to leave for the ballpark."

"Okay, good luck at the game. Hit a homer or something."

"Or something," Dominic promised. "Talk to ya later."

"Bye, Dom." Sheldon set down his phone and stared towards his office door without really seeing it. He really hoped Kaile and Dominic managed to work things out. The family had just started to really recover from Ella's shooting and didn't need any more turmoil right now.


	6. Chapter 5

**AN: **Thanks to those still reading this story. And as always, thanks to my betas who continue to amaze me with their awesomeness. Any mistakes still around anywhere in this story are wholly and completely my fault. :)

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Kaile pushed open the door to the stairwell and began the climb up to Ana's apartment. She really just wanted to go home for a few hours of sleep before jumping back into her case, but apparently Ana and Jack had finally set a date for their wedding and now Ana wanted to talk about bridesmaid dresses and whatnot with Ella, Kaile, Shayna and Carla, all of whom Ana had asked to be her bridesmaids not long after Jack proposed. There was a fifth bridesmaid, a friend of Ana's in the ATF named Christine Burton, but she worked out in California so obviously couldn't be in New York for planning sessions.

Kaile would have begged off except that for all she knew Ana was planning to throw this thing next week. She tended to procrastinate with things like this and then impulsively just do them. Even if the wedding wouldn't be for months, Ana could make a final decision about bridesmaid dresses tonight and Kaile wanted to be around to make sure she didn't end up wearing something truly hideous.

There was also another reason why she was schlepping up the four flights of stairs to the apartment Ana shared with Jack. Ella had been the one to call with the news of the setting of the wedding date (though Ana hadn't actually said what the date was yet, just that she had picked one) and the impromptu planning session, and something had seemed off about her. It wasn't anything she said, but her tone had been a bit cool considering their topic of conversation. Kaile wasn't sure what she had done to tick off her cousin, especially since they had seemed happy with one another just a few days ago when they had lunch, but she didn't press and figured she would ask when she saw Ella face to face.

Finally reaching Ana's door, Kaile knocked briskly. "Just a sec!" she heard from inside. "Kaile!" Ana exclaimed when she opened the door. She leaned forward to hug her older cousin. "I'm so glad you could come."

"I wouldn't miss it," Kaile told her. Their hug ended and Kaile looked around the apartment. "Did you kick Jack out? And where are Shayna and Carla?"

"Oh, Jack is working and the girls aren't coming." Ana said blithely as she opened the closet next to the door and pulled out two jackets. Tossing one to Ella who was leaning against the back of the living room couch, Ana kept the other for herself and began putting it on. "While I have set a date for the wedding, which is in November by the way so that it's after the baseball season, tonight wasn't really about planning. We just needed to get you over here," Ana admitted to her as Ella rounded the couch to the coffee table where there was a laptop computer halfway closed. Ella opened it up to reveal Dominic on the screen.

"What the hell?" This was so not what she wanted to deal with right now.

"You two need to talk, so talk," Ana said matter-of-factly.

"Forget it," Kaile bit out. Nobody liked being ambushed, but Kaile particularly hated it. She turned and opened the door and headed back out into the hallway. Before she could reach the stairs, Ell came out and stopped her.

"You need to talk to him."

Kaile turned with one hand on the door to the stairwell. "I can't believe you were in on this. You hate meddling stuff like this."

"Yeah, I do. But my big brother asked me to help and I can't exactly refuse him when he tells me that he wants to make things right with my cousin who is miserable right now."

Sighing, Kaile ran a hand through her hair. "Fine. Just answer me one thing. Why exactly are you mad at me?" Ella's non-reaction was more of an answer than anything she could have said. "What, did Dominic give you grief about getting that All Star game ticket for you?"

"No," Ell replied. "We talked before you showed up and he didn't hassle me at all, but I told him not to bother sending it since I didn't need it anymore."

"What?" That made no sense whatsoever. "Why? Did Deveraux say he didn't want to go?"

"I never got the chance to ask him." Getting information out of Ella at the moment was like pulling teeth. Times like this called for bluntness.

"Why in the world would you not ask him after going through the hassle of asking me, and me asking Dominic, and now the whole family probably knowing you were planning on asking him?"

"Because family comes first, Kaile," Ella finally burst out with just a hint of anger behind it.

The older woman was flabbergasted. "What does the family have to do with this?"

"Not the rest of the family, K. You. Just you. JD wanted to know what your problem is with Scagnetti since he didn't buy that your issues with his partner stemmed from just an embarrassing teenage incident and I told him to back off. End of story." Ella walked towards the stairs and started to push the door open. "Tell Ana I'll be waiting for her downstairs."

"Hold on a sec," Kaile said desperately, grabbing onto Ell's arm. "I'm…I'm sorry, Ella. I had no idea he would ask you about this."

"Don't worry about it. I can't exactly blame you for having a past you don't want to talk about since I was guilty of that for years and there are still things you all probably don't know about me from the time between when I joined the FBI and now." Ella's face softened just a touch. "You hide it pretty well from most of the family, but some of us know you've had this thing with Scagnetti eating at you for years. Whatever it is, you should really work it out, K. I know better than anyone else what happens when you let unspoken things fester too long." Ella turned then to head down the stairs and Kaile let her go.

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Dominic breathed a sigh of relief as Kaile reentered the apartment and sat down on the couch where he could see her clearly. "Thanks for coming back to talk to me, K."

"Thank your sister. I owe Ella since I've apparently screwed up her life." Dominic forgot about his own problems and sat forward at the incredibly sad and defeated look on the face of the woman he loved.

"What's wrong? How could you have screwed up Ella's life?"

"Because the guy she likes happens to be partnered with my arch-nemesis and apparently she had to choose me over the guy because he chose his partner over her."

Dominic was at a momentary loss over what to say about that. He knew that Kaile had serious issues with John Scagnetti, Jr. and he even had an idea what they might revolve around. He recalled a night almost twenty years ago when they were fifteen and he had taken a walk with her around her neighborhood and listened as she ranted about Scagnetti who was a beat cop at the time. She hadn't gone into specifics, but that was right around the time the men responsible for her mother's death had finally been caught and Dominic had always thought that her problems with Scagnetti were tied to that somehow. Those times weren't something Kaile or her dad ever liked to talk about and the family never pressed them about it. They had just kept a close eye on Don and Kaile until it seemed like they had dealt with their emotions over the arrest and trial of the men responsible for killing Kaile Maka. And to most of the family that was something in the past that wasn't really talked about, much like Aunt Stella's death.

But Dominic had listened to Kaile's bitter rants about Scagnetti, had let her yell into the darkness about the murderers and how she wished she could shoot that scum just like they shot her mother, and had held her as she finally broke down and sobbed it all out. The only other people in the family he figured knew anything about that time were his father who had kept a close eye on his longtime friend during those days, and Ella because she saw and took in everything.

Searching for words, he finally just said whatever came out. "Kaile, you haven't screwed up her life. She hasn't known the guy that long and I for one say good riddance if he made her choose between him and her family."

Kaile bit her lip, a clear sign that she was holding back tears. "But he's not exactly wrong for backing his partner, Dom." She put her head back against the couch and Dominic's heart ached as he wished he were there with her right now. "Maybe I'm being stubborn and ridiculous. Dad doesn't like Scagnetti either, but he doesn't screw up anyone's life because of it."

"You don't know that, K. You're maybe a little more openly hostile, but if your dad said something to him and JD asked Ella about it she would pick your dad over Deveraux too. It's just what we do. Family comes first."

Kaile sighed heavily and sat up. "Okay, let's forget about that for now and move on to what I got ambushed for. I'm assuming you didn't set this up to talk with me about my Scagnetti issues."

That was just great. Now she was in an even worse mood to talk about this than she was after finding out she had been duped. Well, he might as well bite the bullet and start by saying he was sorry. "I wanted to apologize for our last conversation. I was tired and cranky, but that's no excuse for not answering the phone and then biting your head off. I just…" This was the really hard part for him to admit. "I guess I didn't want to pick up the phone because I didn't want to have to listen to you tell me that you thought that one night was a mistake and you were still sticking to your decision to end our dating relationship."

"Apology accepted, and while I wouldn't have led off the conversation with that, I do still believe that that would be best for both of us, Dom. We don't _have_ a 'dating' relationship because we don't date. When you're in town we hook up and spend the night together at my apartment or your hotel and we hang out at family gatherings and that's pretty much it. You're not even in New York much during your off season. We haven't gone on anything remotely like a date in years."

He had thought through all the possible points she would bring up and he was ready for this one. "Okay, first, I take full responsibility for not making more of an attempt to be in New York to work on our relationship when my seasons are over. I've already taken steps to change that. I told Jerry to say no to anything I haven't committed to yet and not accept any more engagements for the off season and that I would be staying in New York whenever possible." Jerry Mitchell was his agent and he hadn't exactly been happy about Dominic's decisions to do fewer engagements, but he wasn't going to protest too loudly to his biggest client. "Second, it's not like we just screw and nothing else." He paused. Talking about stuff like this didn't exactly come easy to him. In this way like many others, he was definitely his father's son. "I called you all the time, K. You kept me anchored when my head got too big, you listened when I ranted about idiots on the team or in the media or whatever, you kept me up to date about what was happening with the family, and more. You might just say most of that is a product of the friendship we've had forever, but I've known tons of guys over the years whose relationships were based on sex and wining and dining and never had anything half as deep as what we've got."

He watched with bated breath as Kaile digested everything he had said. He didn't know what he was going to do if she outright rejected him.

"I don't know, Dominic." She sat forward, put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands so he couldn't see her face. "I want to believe you and I want to give this another go, but I don't know if I can handle it not working out yet again."

"Think about it, Kaile. I'll be in town in a few weeks for the All Star game and we can talk more about it then." If he knew one thing about her it was that she hated to be pushed. Backing off and letting her think gave you a much better chance of her coming around to what you wanted her to do. It was a quality that applied to more than one member of their family.

She raised her head and smiled ruefully. "I don't know if you'll want to talk to me after you hear what I had to do today."

This didn't sound good. "And what would that be?"

Kaile wrung her hands. "I had to bring Jim Munson in for questioning."

Dominic tried not to visibly react. His initial gut reaction was angry, stunned disbelief, but that was immediately followed by the knowledge that Kaile too viewed Jimmy as a friend and wouldn't have brought him in if it wasn't absolutely necessary. "Questioning for what?"

Kaile sighed and looked even more miserable than before and once again he wished he was in New York. "I can't say too much about an ongoing investigation, you know that, but since this much will probably get leaked anyway I will say that it was in connection to two murders and that at this time we're not looking at him as a suspect."

As much as he believed in Kaile and was trying to hold onto his cool, he knew how hard Jim Munson had worked to get to where he was and Kaile phrasing that sentence like she was at a press conference touched the wrong buttons. "Don't screw around with him, Kaile. I know you have to do your job, but don't treat him like he's some druggie off the streets. You could kill his career, and worse than that, you could ruin the reputation he's worked hard to build and discredit him within the deaf community."

Kaile stood up, her eyes flashing, and Dominic knew he had crossed a line. "Don't you think I know all of that? I don't want to hurt him! Though I guess it's logical you would assume that considering all the lives I've been screwing up lately."

"That's not what I said, K." But he knew it was too late as she headed around the couch.

"Forget it, Dominic. I'll see you in a few weeks."

"Kaile!" But she was already gone, the sound of the door closing sharply echoing through his speakers. Damnit. Why did everything always go sideways with them?


	7. Chapter 6

**AN: **The plot thickens...

**Disclaimer:** I've said it before, but I'll mention again that I don't own the Chicago Cubs or any part of their organization, minor league teams included. I did do a little research to find the actual places where the Cubs have minor league teams, but I don't own any of them. And just for the heck of it since I'm doing a disclaimer here, I don't own _CSI:NY_, and that means anything seen on the show including characters, plot points, and/or character traits belong to people other than me. Anything not seen on the show is mine and I'm proud of what little I can claim. :)

* * *

Kaile woke to the loud thud of files being dropped near her head on the desk. Opening her eyes she looked blearily at what had unceremoniously disturbed her slumber. "What the hell?" she muttered. 

"Rise and shine." Kaile wearily brought her head up to see Scagnetti sitting on the edge of the desk across from hers with his arms crossed. She bit back a nasty retort when she saw a reflection of what her own face probably looked like at that moment. Scagnetti looked like he had gotten about as much sleep as she had last night, maybe less.

Groaning at the soreness from sleeping at her desk, Kaile sat back in her chair and rubbed the back of her neck. "I repeat, Scags, what the hell?"

"You know, they say that sleeping at one's desk isn't a good idea, but it's not the sleep that's the problem, it's the waking up." He raised his hands in a placating gesture at Kaile's look. "Okay, okay…so, the files. I combed through NCIC and came up with some interesting stuff." He picked up the first file on the top of the stack. "I've got stuff going back over a decade. Oldest is Penelope Moore, age 20, deaf, stabbed multiple times out in Idaho. Only mutilation to the ears was that the murderer pulled out her earrings and took part of the ear lobe with them. But we'll get back to why I still think that's connected," he said, placing that case file down on the desk where Kaile's head had been just moments before and picking up the next one on the stack. "Next is Sylvia Gray in Tennessee, also deaf, also stabbed, and the real ear mutilation starts." He repeated his previous restacking and picking up of another file, though this time he picked up two. "Then we have Emily Cook and Tricia Elliot in Iowa. Same story as the rest."

Something about the list of locations, Idaho, Tennessee and Iowa, was sounding familiar to Kaile though she couldn't figure out why. But it all became clear as Scagnetti listed the next victims. "Then we've got three more women, all deaf, all stabbed, killed in Chicago or the surrounding suburbs."

"Whoa, hold up." She stared down at the stacks of files then back up at Scagnetti. "Those first three states you mentioned, the victims wouldn't happen to have been killed near the minor league teams of the Chicago Cubs, would they?"

"Now you've got it," Scagnetti confirmed, sitting again on the desk across from Kaile's. "In order from single A right up to the majors and the rest of that stack goes on to Arizona and California and wherever else Jim Munson played until finally culminating here in New York."

"Okay, wait, this can't be right." Dear God, she hoped it wasn't right. "We checked Jim's alibi yesterday when we were talking to him. Not only was he out of town at games when our vics were killed, he was pitching on the days the ME put the times of death. He couldn't be involved." Making sure of that was the whole reason she had spent the night at her desk. After her disastrous talk with Dominic she had wanted to clear Jim Munson completely, so she had spent hours looking through the lives of their two vics and trying to find some way they were connected besides being deaf and having dated Jim. Nothing had popped up, but she hadn't given up hope. At least, she hadn't until now.

"Oh, he's involved, the question is just to what degree." He held up a hand before Kaile could object. "I took the trouble to check and just like with our New York vics, Jim Munson was pitching out of town every single time one of these victims was killed." Scagnetti stood up and put his hands in his pants pockets. "So, he didn't do the stabbings himself, but the fact that he was out of town with thousands of people witnessing his alibi _every single time_ means that there is something going on here, Kaile. The idea I can't shake is that he hired someone to murder these women and to make sure that the killings happened while he was out of town so he couldn't be a suspect."

"No, that's not possible." She got up from her chair and began pacing behind her desk. She was thankful in that moment that her desk was off in a corner and that all the desks near hers were unoccupied at the moment. This was not a conversation she wanted anyone else overhearing. "Jim would never hurt anyone, either himself or through a hit man. It's just not possible," she said again.

"You're going to have to accept the possibility," Scagnetti told her.

Her eyes flashed as she turned to face him. "You've told me before that I had to accept something and I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe this now."

Scagnetti flinched slightly before crossing his arms. "And just like that time, you're too close to this. You need to take yourself off this case."

"The hell I do." She took her jacket off the back of her desk chair, put it on, took her sidearm out of one of her desk drawers and placed it back at her waist.

"What do you think you're doing, Flack?" Scagnetti asked indignantly.

"Questioning a material witness because that's all he is at this point. You've as much as admitted that he couldn't have killed these women and so far we don't even know if he knew these other ones. The only way we can know that is if we ask him." She came around her desk and started to head out when Scagnetti grabbed her arm.

"I'm not going to let you ruin our case just because you know the guy." It wasn't a side of Scagnetti that came out a lot, but he could be as serious as the next guy and she knew he wouldn't back down.

"Then come with me, but you can't stop me from going." They stared at each other for a few more moments until Scagnetti let go of her arm.

"Fine." He turned and picked up all of the files he had brought. "JD took copies of these files to the lab to see if the CSIs could find anything useful in them that I missed. He'll call me if they find something and maybe we'll have more to ask Mr. Munson about."

"Fine." Kaile responded, echoing his word and his tone. She turned and headed out of the precinct, not looking to see if Scagnetti followed her. It was probably better that he did come. If the worst happened, he could be the one to snap the handcuffs on. Then at least she could tell Dominic that she wasn't the one to arrest one of his oldest friends. Not that that would really be enough to keep Dom from being ticked at her and possibly never speaking to her again.

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"Hey, Dr. Hawkes." Sheldon looked up and smiled in greeting.

"Good morning, Detective Deveraux. You pull an early shift?"

"Kind of," JD replied, shifting the folders he held under his left arm. "Scagnetti found something on our case with Kaile Flack. He must have been up all night. Anyway, he asked me to bring copies of the files to the CSIs on the cases, but I can't seem to find them. You haven't seen Alexis, Xavier or Scott, have you?"

"No, but then I haven't been here long. I just got in and I had a message on my desk from Lindsay asking me to meet her in her office this morning." He looked over to the office in question and noticed Lindsay putting her phone back on the hook. "And it looks like she might finally be free. Why don't we kill two birds with one stone and both see her? She should know where your missing CSIs are." JD shrugged and followed.

"Oh, good, you're here," Lindsay greeted Sheldon as he pushed open the door to the office. Her eyes narrowed and her face tensed just a touch as she took notice of who followed Hawkes in. "And Detective Deveraux, good timing. You, Scagnetti and Kaile were my next call."

Sheldon raised an eyebrow. Lindsay didn't often break out this tone. JD looked pale and he didn't even know what the problem was yet. "Uh, is there something wrong, ma'am?"

Hawkes stifled a grin even before Lindsay shot back with "Don't call me ma'am." That was a trait she had picked up from Mac and something the family teased each other about all the time. "What the hell were you three doing yesterday? Do you know how many calls I've taken already this morning from people wondering why we arrested a member of the New York Yankees? Why wasn't I or any of my CSIs notified about you bringing in Jim Munson?"

Sheldon's ears perked up. He had only casually met Jim Munson a couple of times, but he was a close family friend of the Messers and nobody in the family took that lightly.

"We didn't arrest him, ma'am, I mean Detective Messer. I don't know who's telling you that, but we just brought him in for questioning because it turns out that he knew both of our victims. And I was just coming to notify our CSIs and go through some new information with them," JD finished, holding up the stack of files he had been carrying.

"I know you didn't arrest Jim, but word travels fast and it tends to get twisted as it goes down the line." Lindsay folded her arms over her chest. "I don't appreciate my lab being out of the loop, Detective."

"Understood." His unstated ma'am hung in the air.

There were a few moments of silence. Sheldon wondered at the attitude of his longtime friend and colleague. Sure, nobody liked to get blindsided and the added angle of a family friend being involved was going to put her in a bad mood, but he would have thought it would take more than that to get her like this. Danny was much more likely to have this kind of reaction.

"You can leave the files here," Lindsay finally said. "Xavier will be in later and I have Alexis and Scott out on a call."

JD acquiesced and put the stack on her desk. "It's a list of cases around the country that Scagnetti thinks are connected to ours because they fit our specific signature. He hoped that the CSIs could find some forensics in the files that might help us. We'll be following up on the suspects in these cases and seeing if there are any connections to New York."

"Good. Keep us informed and we'll do likewise, Detective." Deveraux nodded and headed out of the office. Hawkes waited until JD got onto the elevator before raising an eyebrow at Lindsay. "What?" she asked defensively.

"That wasn't like you, Linds. What did the poor kid do?"

Lindsay Messer sighed and sat down in the chair behind her desk. "Ana called last night to give a heads up so we didn't bother Ella with questions. She said she didn't know specifics because Ella wasn't talking, but she thinks Ella and Deveraux had a falling out."

Now Hawkes understood. For any of them, messing with one of the kids was about the worst thing you could do. "And you're worried that something like this could push Ella back into the shell she's been in for years," he stated as he sat in one of the chairs in front of her desk.

"Well, yes," she admitted. Sighing, she picked the top folder off the stack. "But I'll have to worry about my daughter later. If Scagnetti is right, this looks like we could have a serial killer on our hands."

"I'm happy to help," Hawkes offered, leaning forward to take a few of the files. This kind of paperwork he could cope with much better than what he usually had to deal with. "Answer me one thing though."

Lindsay looked up from her file and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Trying to hold back a smile, Hawkes asked, "Have you told Danny that Deveraux might have broken Ella's heart?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "What, do you think I'm stupid?"


	8. Chapter 7

**AN:** Thanks to all who are continuing to read this story. Everyone's encouragement has been very nice.

Fair warning, there is some adult language in this chapter, but only a few words and only where needed.

Continued thanks to my betas who keep me going. :)

* * *

Dominic walked through JFK International Airport looking for his soon to be brother-in-law. He couldn't quite believe he was in New York, but here he was anyway. He hadn't been able to sleep much after his disastrous conversation with Kaile and somewhere in the middle of the night he had decided to do what his dad had taught him, to go with his instincts. That advice had served him pretty well in the past and now his instincts were telling him to come to New York and talk to Kaile where she couldn't hang up on him or walk away.

Fortunately he'd had the day off or this wouldn't have been half as easy. His coach wasn't thrilled with him traveling to New York on their off day when he would have to be in Texas the next day, but he knew Dominic wouldn't do it if he didn't feel that it was absolutely necessary. And as far as Dominic was concerned, this was absolutely necessary. If he didn't get this thing with Kaile resolved at least a little bit, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on his job and that wasn't good for anyone.

So, he had gotten a morning flight and while he was in the air he called Jack to ask him to pick him up at the airport. Calling a family member (or almost-family member in this case) seemed like the easiest way to get in without too much attention from fans. He'd already gotten looks on the plane, but it was amazing what wearing a suit and putting on a pair of sunglasses could do for you. He was a veritable Clark Kent.

Finally spotting Jack, he headed over to the taller man. "Thanks for coming."

Jack shook Dom's hand. "You do know the only reason I'm here and that Ana doesn't know yet is because she's out on a case, right?"

Dominic grimaced. "I did try to call her first." And he had. He and Ana were close and she would have helped him for the day before telling the family he had come to town, but she would have questioned him the entire ride into the city. Ella wouldn't have pried, but her silences tended to make people talk anyway. His sisters managed to achieve the same goal in completely different ways.

The two men started heading towards the exit. "I'm honestly not trying to keep my visit a secret, I know that's pretty much impossible, but I would like to not be hassled and just do what I came here to do."

"And what exactly would that be?" Jack asked casually.

"Talk to Kaile," Dominic said simply as they strolled towards temporary parking. "And she's not getting away until we've talked, even if I have to handcuff her to a chair."

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Kaile twisted her wrists around inside the handcuffs binding her to the floor-to-ceiling pipe behind her. "Why didn't you shoot her?" she muttered to the only other person in the room.

"Because the chances of me hitting her and not shooting you in the head were infinitesimal at best," Scagnetti replied, not even trying to mess with the handcuffs that similarly bound him. "You should really stop messing with the cuffs, Kaile. The drugs she put in you are probably keeping you from feeling the pain, but you've likely already broken skin and started bleeding and if you do too much more of that you'll bleed to death before anyone can figure out something is wrong and find us here."

Kaile blew out a frustrated sigh but stopped wiggling for the moment since he had a point. It was just that fiddling with the handcuffs gave her something to do which kept her focused and less likely to fall back into the drug-induced haze she had been in. "You still should have taken the shot. Now we're here, defenseless without any hope of backup, and Jim could be anywhere."

There was an acronym Devon had picked up in the military that fit their current situation perfectly: FUBAR. All they had been planning on doing was talking to Jim Munson, but everything had gone to hell in a hand basket pretty quickly. Kaile and Scagnetti had only been in Jim's apartment for ten or fifteen minutes when there was a knock at the door. They hadn't even gotten very far in their interview since Jim had to take the time to type everything out onto his PDA so that they could read it since Sinclair wasn't around, Kaile's signing skills were not up to what was required of the situation, and Jim didn't want to use his own voice and risk any misunderstandings.

Surprising them all, Jim's visitor was the receptionist from the deaf community center, Charity Connors. Jim had tried to tell her it wasn't a good time, but she had managed to slip inside while they signed to one another. Kaile had come over to insist that she leave and that was when the world turned upside down. This unassuming woman had pulled out a knife and was holding Kaile hostage before anyone could blink. She held it so close Kaile had had to try not to swallow to keep it from breaking skin, not an easy thing to do when adrenaline starts pumping through your system.

A split second later Scagnetti had his weapon out and pointing at the woman who was doing a good job of using Kaile as a shield. Believing that her hostage taker was deaf, Kaile had started talking to Scagnetti, telling him they could coordinate an attack where Kaile would drop out of his way so he could take the woman out. That was when they got their next surprise. Apparently the woman wasn't actually deaf, she had just been pretending to be all these years to get closer to Jim. So, needless to say, she didn't take kindly to Kaile's plans. Eventually Scagnetti had given up his weapon and then out of nowhere the Connors woman produced a syringe of some kind of drug that knocked Kaile out almost immediately. Upon waking Scagnetti had informed her that at gunpoint (using Kaile's weapon in addition to Scagnetti's) the woman had forced him to carry Kaile out of the apartment with Jim following and now here they were, the detectives restrained with their own handcuffs and the innocent baseball player off being forced to do who knew what and nobody else knowing that anything was wrong. Scagnetti didn't even have a clue where they were because Connors had ordered Munson to blindfold the detective during the car ride.

Kaile put her head back against the pole and closed her eyes. With a sardonic twist of her lips she spoke to her fellow prisoner. "You know, if I had to be handcuffed in a room with a guy, I have to say, you're not my first choice, Scags."

He snorted derisively. "You're not exactly my favorite person in the world either."

She opened her eyes. She wasn't surprised at his statement, but the comment made her bristle just the same. Maybe it was because she couldn't do anything about her current predicament. Or maybe she just wanted to spar with him to keep herself awake. "I think I've got a bit more reason to dislike you than you do me."

"You came close to denying me the ability to ever have children," he reminded her.

"And you don't think you deserved that?" she asked incredulously. This was probably the worst place to have this particular discussion, but what the hell, maybe they needed to have it out. "You fucking arrested my dad, you bastard, and you thought I would be okay with that?"

Scagnetti's eyes flashed and he sat up a little straighter. "I didn't arrest your father, Kaile Flack, and you know that."

"He was in handcuffs!" she yelled. "What in the hell do you call that?"

"Saving him from himself!" Scagnetti yelled back. "Or would you rather he have gone to prison for the rest of his life?"

"No jury would have convicted him," Kaile shot back angrily. "And that was if he even got to that point."

"And what would that have done to your family?" he reasoned. "Your Uncle Mac is as straight-laced as they come. What would it have done to him to have to choose between the law and your dad? And what would it have done to your aunt and uncles? Having to choose between betraying the integrity of the lab and the Medical Examiner's office and their friend so he could exact some vigilante justice?"

"They deserved to die!" she yelled back, tears springing to her eyes. She cursed the weakness and her inability to wipe them away.

Scagnetti's face softened just a touch, but his tone was still harsh. "I've never denied that. The guys that killed your mother deserve to rot in hell for all eternity. But if I had let your dad do what he was going to do that night, it not only would have destroyed your family, it would have destroyed him. As much as Don Flack has wanted to mete out street justice on scum over the years like any sane, human cop would have the urge to do once in awhile, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he killed in cold blood." He paused as Kaile turned away, unable to look at him any longer and vainly trying to hide her tears. "You already didn't have a mom, Kaile. I couldn't let you become an orphan."

Kaile drew up her knees and laid her cheek on them. She felt like she was fifteen again, pacing the apartment wondering where her dad was, staring out the window and finally seeing a police cruiser pull up. Seeing Scagnetti get out, she had initially been scared to death that he was coming to tell her horrible news, though a part of her brain knew that if that were true then someone from the family would have come. But then Scagnetti walked to the back of his squad car, opened the door, and helped out her father who had his wrists in handcuffs behind him. She had raced downstairs faster than anyone would have thought possible and upon coming outside had launched herself at Scagnetti, not even caring that he had just finished letting her father out of the restraints. At that point all she knew was that he had handcuffed and possibly arrested her father, but that was enough for her. He had grabbed her arms to keep her from punching him any further and her father had begun to pull her away when Kaile had given Scagnetti a swift kick that he still remembered.

It was only the next day when he had sobered up that Don Flack had told his daughter the basics of what had happened. He might not have except that he had promised his daughter the day that she was born that he would never hold back anything from her when it came to her mother. So, he told her that he had found out about a guy who knew where to find the men who had shot and killed Kaile Maka fifteen years before. A completely inebriated Don had just finished shaking down the punk and had gotten the desired information when Scagnetti happened upon him on his usual route as a street cop. He got the gist of the situation and tried to reason with Don telling him they should call it in and let it be handled the right way. But by that time Don Flack was past the point of caring about the right way. When he tried to head down the street anyway, Scagnetti had reached to stop him, Flack had forcibly reacted, and a scuffle ensued with the end result being Flack in handcuffs.

When she was being brutally honest with herself Kaile knew that Scagnetti had been right that night. But in the absence of being able to personally exact justice on the murderers and ease her father's pain, she had instead taken her anger and pain out on Scagnetti for nearly two decades. "You don't know that he would have killed them," she said softly, brokenly.

"If he hadn't, they would have claimed police brutality and gotten a lesser sentence or maybe even gotten off. That would have been worse." By this time Scagnetti's voice had lost all of its anger and was more resigned than anything. "Look, I don't want you to think that I'm whining because the whole thing was obviously worse for you and your dad than it ever was for me, but it wasn't easy for me either, Kaile." She looked up and was mentally rocked by the pain in his eyes. "I've known your family my entire life. My dad even talked about a time your dad saved his ass during a shootout. I was only a kid, but I remember your mom's funeral. That night I wanted nothing more than to go with your dad and help him wipe that scum off the face of the earth. But I did what I thought I had to do to best help you all and I stand by my decision. I'm sorry that the justice system didn't give them the death penalty, but they should both die in prison. It sucks and your mom deserved more, but that's the way it has to be."

Kaile put her forehead against her knees. She debated about what to say next and finally decided that maybe finally letting it out would at long last allow her to move on somewhat. "You want to know something?" she asked, raising her head but looking at the wall over his head without really seeing anything. "For me, it didn't really have a lot to do with my mother." She glanced at Scagnetti and saw the surprise on his face at the admission. "Sure, I wished I had known her and I wanted justice for her death. But I never knew her, so it was always kind of hard to get too worked up about her murder." She blew out a breath. "What ticked me off then and to this day is how those punks hurt my dad. And I'm not just talking about how he was suddenly a single parent. Not catching the murderers ate at him for years, and then almost betraying the badge by killing them hit him hard even if you did stop him. Add to that the embarrassment and shame at knowing you know that about him." She locked eyes with the man who had been her nemesis for almost twenty years. "I hated you because every time my father looked at you he had to remember how you had to take him down and handcuff him to keep him on the right side of the law. You are a living reminder to him of how he failed to bring my mother's murderers to justice."

Scagnetti looked like he had been punched in the gut. "I…I don't know how to fix that."

Kaile shook her head. "I didn't say that to make you feel bad, John." He looked a little stunned that she had actually used his first name. "I just…I wanted you to know what's driven me all these years. Honestly, I think my dad has gotten past most if not all of that. And he's never actually spoken a bad word about you to me. But it's always been essentially just the two of us and just as he's overprotective of me even now, I've always been overprotective of him."

They were both quiet for a few moments and the only sound in the room was the dripping of water off in one of the corners. "Well," Scagnetti finally said, "I guess I can understand that. God knows how I would react if our situations were reversed." Slowly but surely the tension seemed to drain out of the room. "So, does this mean we've come to some kind of détente?"

Kaile rolled her eyes, but one side of her mouth curled up in a half-smile. "I suppose. But don't think this means we're going to be best buds. You're still an annoying son of a bitch, Scags."

Scagnetti grinned. "Hey, what did my mother ever do to you? And besides, I wouldn't know how to handle you being nice to me anyway. Might give me a rash."

And in the place where Kaile least expected it, she finally found a measure of peace in a place of her heart and mind that had been an open wound for her entire adult life. Leaning her head back against the pipe behind her, she tried to contemplate her life without that anger that had always resided just below the surface. Maybe now she could actually be ready to make a relationship with Dominic work because she wouldn't be such a bitter person always looking out for how someone would knock her off the proverbial ladder. But that would have to wait until later. There would be no chance whatsoever for a future with Dominic if she didn't figure a way out of her current situation.


	9. Chapter 8

**AN:** While the NCIC that I mentioned in a previous chapter is a real law enforcement database, the one I talk about in this chapter, the Crime Scene Reconstruction Database (or the CSRD), is a complete figment of my imagination. But it sounds cool, doesn't it? And I meant to mention this at the end of the last chapter, but for anyone who was wondering what FUBAR stands for, the BAR stands for "beyond all recognition" and I'll let you figure out what the FU stands for. :)

Continued thanks to all my readers and my betas and continued disclaimers that I don't own anything that isn't a figment of my imagination (now whether those things get used in my imagination is a whole other matter...).

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"That's weird," Dominic muttered to himself, staring down at his cell phone. Halfway into the city from the airport he had finally called Kaile only to have the call go straight to her voicemail. Thing was, she never turned her cell phone off. She might not answer it for whatever reason, but she never turned it off. Nobody in the family did since most of them were in law enforcement and it had to be possible to reach them pretty much any time, day or night, and everybody else wanted to keep in contact in case of a family emergency. 

"Can't get her on the phone?" Jack asked, briefly taking his eyes off the road to glance at his passenger.

"No." He was trying not to be paranoid, but he had this bad feeling in his gut. Usually his gut was telling him when he was about to get a pitch in his sweet spot, but this time was different. He had felt it a few times in his life; when his Uncle Mac got the call about Stella and tried to say it was probably nothing, when Ella was in the hospital after being shot and everybody told him she would be fine only to have her break out. It was not a feeling he liked.

But who to call? Talking to someone at her precinct could be embarrassing if he was wrong and he was already on shaky enough ground with Kaile. Calling his parents or Mac would just make things complicated and he didn't know if that was necessary yet. Uncle Don was out of the question. Aunt Tessa likely wouldn't be able to find anything out without calling someone else in the family anyway. That left Uncle Sheldon. Dialing his uncle, Dominic tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut that something wasn't right.

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Sheldon flipped back and forth between files. He watched again the CSRD video from the Chicago cases. The Crime Scene Reconstruction Database had been a huge development in law enforcement, allowing other jurisdictions to not just get the information in paper form, but to see the actual crime scene reconstructed in digital form. Smaller police departments didn't have the funding or manpower to create a reconstruction let alone upload it to the database, but bigger cities like Chicago did it for almost all of their murders and some other crimes and it was extremely helpful.

Right now Hawkes had an idea forming in his head that he couldn't quite articulate yet. There was something about the stabbings and the ear mutilation that seemed to be trying to tell him something beyond the deaf angle. He didn't feel like this was a hate crime against deaf women, or at least not only about that. And yet he couldn't say what that other element was.

He looked over at Lindsay as she blew out a frustrated breath. "We don't have anything, Sheldon! The closest thing I can find to evidence that could be used to cast doubt on Jim Munson's guilt is this one hair found on one of the early victims, but it was probably just random transfer since the hair was identified as being female." She got up from the couch where she had been working since Sheldon needed her computer to bring up the CSRD and began pacing. "I know Jim couldn't have hurt these girls! But we can't even figure out why this guy wants to kill these women beyond them being deaf, let alone who the guy is."

And suddenly it clicked for Sheldon Hawkes. "What if it isn't a him?"

Lindsay stopped and looked at him with obvious confusion on her face. "What?"

"What if it isn't a man? What if it's a woman?" Sheldon felt that excitement he always experienced when a case felt like it was coming together. "There was no obvious sexual component to the crimes, right? With male serial killers there almost always is."

Lindsay crossed her arms and cocked her head as she thought through what Hawkes was saying. "Go on," she urged him.

"Okay, and then there's the wounds." He brought up one of the reconstructions. "They're right on the borderline between what is typical depth and angle for either a male or female attacker, so I can understand why the medical examiners defaulted to the more likely idea of the murderer being male, but I think it's just as likely a woman could have made these wounds."

"And we've got that female hair I just mentioned," Lindsay stated, beginning to pace again. "But the locations of all these murders coinciding exactly with Jim Munson's career can't be a coincidence."

"I agree. But what if," Sheldon posited, "the killer is obsessed with Jim? We know he dated the New York victims, so if he dated some of the others or at least had contact with all of them, then I think it's possible the killer saw the women as competition for Jim's affections. It would explain why they were all killed on days when Jim was pitching. If the killer really thinks they're in love with Jim, then they wouldn't want him to become a viable suspect, so they would be sure to give him an alibi."

"Okay, I can buy all of that." Sheldon felt reassured that his colleague and friend didn't think that he was pulling theories out of thin air. "There's still the ear mutilation to figure out."

"Well, just thinking out loud here, what if the killer was angry at the women being deaf?"

"But that doesn't make sense if the person the killer is obsessed with is deaf," Lindsay pointed out. "Why would they be angry at the women for being deaf if they aren't angry at Jim for the same thing?"

"Because…" Sheldon looked down as his brain whizzed through possibilities, then looked back up at Lindsay. "Because the killer isn't deaf."

Lindsay's brow furrowed. "Why would that matter?"

"All of these victims are deaf," Sheldon reminded her. "So, apparently Jim only dates deaf women."

"And if our serial killer wants to be his true love, then she would hate the fact that she isn't deaf," Lindsay finished.

"Exactly." Sheldon started slightly as his phone started ringing from his pocket. Taking it out and opening it up he raised an eyebrow. "It's Dominic," he told Lindsay as he pressed the button to answer the call. "Hey, Dominic, now's not a good time–" He stopped as his nephew asked if he had seen Kaile. "No, but she might be out on a case." He grew concerned as Dominic told him that Kaile's phone was apparently turned off. "That's odd. I'll look into it and give you a call back. If I can't reach your cell, where should I call you?" Now he raised both eyebrows and Lindsay walked towards him obviously concerned. "Okay, I'm in your mom's office. Why don't you head this way and I'll see what I can find out. We'll see you in fifteen minutes." The call ended and Sheldon shut his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Dominic's in New York?" Lindsay asked incredulously.

"Apparently. And he can't get a hold of Kaile, her phone is going straight to voicemail." Just then the phone on Lindsay's desk rang.

Shooting Sheldon a worried look, Lindsay picked up the phone. "Detective Messer. Deveraux? What?" Sheldon's gut tightened. "Okay. Talk to your lieutenant, then come to my office. Hawkes and I think we have a lead, that our serial killer might be a woman, and maybe you can connect it to what you know of the case."

"More bad news?" Sheldon asked as Lindsay hung up.

"Yeah. Apparently Deveraux can't reach Scagnetti who went with Kaile to talk to Jim Munson. He even went to Munson's apartment and had the super open up the place. There was no one there, but Kaile and Scagnetti's cell phones were lying on the ground." They looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Lindsay picked up the phone again. "Time to start calling in reinforcements. I'll get some of my people to Munson's apartment to process it."

"I'll call Don," Sheldon said, taking his phone back out. He hoped to God they were overreacting, though he highly doubted that, but even if they were, Don deserved to know that something was up with his daughter.


	10. Chapter 9

**AN:** Thanks for the compliments on my imaginary CSRD. Maybe someone will read this story and create it. :)

To all who are reading this story, I very much appreciate you. Any and all comments or questions are welcome. You never know when one of your thoughts will influence a story. My betas can attest to that. **printandpolish** in partcular has a line in this chapter that's totally hers because it made me laugh and I just had to rewrite a section so I could fit it in. :)

* * *

"I'm sure she's fine," Jack tried to reassure him. Dominic just pushed the button again for the elevator up to the crime lab. "From what I know of her, she knows how to take care of herself."

"Doesn't mean something bad can't happen to her. My family is filled with people who know how to take care of themselves but end up getting hurt anyway," Dom said darkly.

"Agent Dent?" Dom and Jack turned to find Detective Deveraux approaching the elevator.

"Deveraux, nice to see you again," Jack responded, shaking the hand of the other man.

"Dominic Messer?" Deveraux looked appropriately surprised to be running into Dom in New York. "Uh, are you here visiting family?" The younger man looked ill at ease.

"Not exactly. I'm here to see Kaile, but I haven't been able to get a hold of her. You wouldn't happen to know anything about where she is, would you?" The uncomfortable look that crossed the other man's face answered his question. "What do you know, Deveraux?"

"Nothing really," JD said. "She went out with Scagnetti and now they're both out of touch and your mother told me to come upstairs–"

"Wait, she's with Scags? And he's out of contact too?" Dominic felt his stomach drop. The elevator dinged behind him and both Jack and JD moved to enter.

"Dom?" Jack asked, holding open the door when it tried to close.

Dominic didn't answer or even look over his shoulder as he took off back down the hallway. His instincts had led him to New York for a reason and if he went upstairs his parents would keep him out of the search for Kaile. He had an idea of where to look for a lead and he wasn't going to let his family stop him.

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"Wake up, Kaile!" She groggily opened her eyes and glared at Scagnetti for having just delivered a kick to her foot along with the stiff command.

"Shut up, Scags." She closed her eyes only to have him kick her again.

"Stay awake, Kaile Flack, and that's an order." Beneath the anger she could see the fear but she was too tired to think anything of it.

"We're the same rank, Scags, you can't order me around." She tiredly tried to move her legs so that he couldn't kick them anymore.

"I've had more time on the force than you so technically I am your superior, but that's not the point. You need to stay awake, Kaile. I think you've lost some blood from messing with your handcuffs and coupled with the drugs in your system you're dropping off and you can't do that. Your dad will kick my ass if you don't make it out of here."

Kaile smirked. "I'm supposed to help you get out of an ass-kicking?" Her brain wasn't grasping all the concepts he was talking about.

"You would latch onto that. No, I'll gladly take the ass-kicking if you'll just stay awake, okay?"

She tried to think about what Scagnetti was saying, but her brain was doing a damn fine job of blocking the pain and the sensation of her blood on her fingers and urging her to just black out and let it all go. "I think I should lie down."

"No, damnit, you should not lay down!" Some of Scagnetti's fear was starting to leak into his voice.

"It's for a good reason," Kaile assured him. "I think…I think lying down will mean less blood flowing out of my wrists."

"Oh…I suppose that might work…" She didn't even wait for his agreement before she started trying to lay on her side. Lying on her back was pretty much out of the question with the way her hands were bound behind her body, but her side worked well enough for the job.

"You're going to have to talk to me to help me stay awake, Scags," Kaile told her fellow prisoner.

"About what?"

Kaile smiled tiredly. "I didn't think I'd ever hear you at a loss for words, Scags." She chuckled at his snort. "I don't know, tell me something that will get me ticked at you. Anger should keep me going." _It always has before_ she thought. "Or make me laugh. You're always telling me what a funny guy you are."

Scagnetti shifted positions. "Okay, well, when I was ten, I had this pet turtle …" He went on and she struggled to stay conscious while he talked to her about anything and everything.

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"What the HELL is going on?" Sheldon looked up as Don burst into Lindsay's office closely followed by Mac.

"We don't really know," Hawkes said, trying to calm the other man down a bit. "Just like I told you on the phone, the only thing we know is that Kaile and Scagnetti are incommunicado. They went to talk to Jim Munson, but he's missing as well."

"Does this have something to do with that possible serial killer you were telling me about?" Mac asked Lindsay. "The guy who is killing deaf women?"

"Actually, the girl," Danny spoke up from the corner of the room where he had been looking at one of the files. "Lindsay and Hawkes put it together. It looks like we've got a female serial killer who's been working her way around the country following Jim Munson."

"And now this _psycho_ has my daughter?" Don looked about ready to explode or deflate at the slightest provocation depending on the news he got next.

"We don't know that for sure yet," Lindsay tried to placate him knowing very well how flat the words fell considering she had been in Don's position just a short time ago when Ella was in trouble. "Deveraux should be here any minute and then we can figure out what to do next." She looked down at her watch. "Actually, he should have been here by now."

Sheldon looked down at his own watch. "Dominic should have been here, too."

"Dominic? What is he doing in New York?" Mac asked.

"Apparently he came to town to talk to Kaile," Lindsay told them. Hawkes noticed that she deliberately ignored Don's shoulders tensing up. Don loved his nephew, but his daughter always came first and whenever there was something going on between Dom and Kaile he obviously and understandably felt he had to take his daughter's side. "Sheldon told him to meet us up here. I'll try calling him and see what's up." She picked up her desk phone and punched in the numbers. Everyone waited in tense silence until Lindsay looked up with new worry in her eyes. "He's not answering."

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"What are you doing, Dom?" Jack asked desperately as he followed his future brother-in-law into Kaile's precinct squad room.

Dominic felt his phone vibrating. Hoping against hope that it was Kaile he pulled it out, then ignored it when he saw that it was his mother calling. "There's got to be something at her desk that will give us a clue as to where she is." At least he hoped there was. It was the only idea he had.

"I've been working this case with her ever since we realized there was a connection," JD told him. "I know everything about the cases and I'm telling you, we didn't have any suspects or even a strong person of interest that we could interrogate. There's nothing at Kaile's desk that will help."

"If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears," Dom told him as he reached Kaile's desk and started rummaging through what was on top. He ignored the looks he was getting from the detectives in the room and started rifling through the various papers and files.

"Jack!" The three men looked over to find Ana coming towards them closely followed by her sister. Dominic didn't miss the strained looks that passed between Ella and JD but he didn't have time to think about them right now. "Dominic, what are you doing? I thought you said on the phone that you guys were meeting Mom and Dad and everyone else upstairs, then Jack calls to say you're here."

Dominic ignored her questions as he started to rummage through the desk's drawers. "Yes!" he crowed triumphantly as he pulled out Kaile's PDA. "She must have left in a hurry and forgotten this." Pushing a button, he brought the screen to life.

"You're hoping she made a note of something that seemed suspicious to her but didn't mention to anyone else," Ella deduced.

"Exactly. Deveraux, what was the name of the victim in Kaile's case?"

"Abigail Jones," JD supplied.

Dom used the stylus to open the Jones file. He scrolled down what little information there was. From the date at the top he could tell she hadn't had the case for very long which was probably the reason for the lack of information. But there was one name with a couple of question marks after it. "Who is Charity Connors?"

"Connors?" JD repeated, nonplussed at the name. "She's the receptionist at the deaf community center. Why?"

"Because Kaile made a note to check into the woman a little," Dom told him, showing JD the entry in the PDA. "Obviously something about the woman made Kaile suspicious and she just hadn't gotten around to checking her out yet."

"But that's a leap to thinking that this woman is the perp and that she's done something to Scagnetti and Kaile," Ana pointed out.

"I don't care," Dom told them. "We don't have any other leads, so we might as well talk to this woman." He started to head away from the desk when Ella grabbed his arm and held on tight to keep him from going any further.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked quietly, though there was no mistaking the heat behind her words.

He met his sister's eyes head on. "Don't think you're keeping me out of this, Ella. I've been to that community center before with Jim, so I know how to get there on my own, and there's no way you can keep me from going there."

Dominic felt like his sister was almost searching his soul with her eyes. Before she could come to a decision, JD spoke up. "He might be helpful if he's been there before. I haven't been much farther than the front lobby and I don't know the people there on a personal level."

Dom was impressed when Deveraux didn't flinch as Ella turned her angry gaze his way. Maybe the guy had the balls and character to go out with his sister after all. Ella's grip loosened on his arm as she turned back to him. "Fine. But if anything goes wrong you had better listen if any of us tell you to stay back or I'll shoot you myself. I'd rather you have a flesh wound than a fatal one." Dominic nodded, only mostly sure that her threat was only that, a threat. He watched as his sister squatted down to pull her secondary gun out of her ankle holster. "Is your New York permit up to date?"

"Yeah," Dominic replied, taking the gun she handed him. It had been a long time since he had held one and he had never had one in his hand outside of a shooting range. His father had taught them all gun safety when they were very young just to be on the safe side, even though their parents locked both of their guns far out of the reach of their children when they came home from work. When they were old enough, their dad took them to the range to teach them to shoot. Dom had never really enjoyed firing a gun, but when he was younger he practiced just so he wouldn't be embarrassed by his sisters and Kaile. Then when he got older he just kept the permits for Chicago and New York up to date out of habit, even though he wasn't even sure he remembered the combination for the safe where he kept his one gun back at his apartment in Chicago.

"Good. This is just in case and only for self defense." Dom checked the safety as he had been taught before putting the gun in his jacket pocket. Ella looked around at their group. "Ana and I drove in together and my car is right outside. Why don't we all just go in that." Everyone nodded and turned to leave the precinct. Two ATF agents, an NYPD Detective, an FBI agent and a major league baseball player made for an interesting group, but Dominic would put them up against anyone. _Hold on, Kaile, wherever you are. We're coming for you._


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: **We're ramping up towards the end here. Making an educated guess I'd say we've got about three or four more chapters to go.

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A ringing phone broke the tense silence in the SUV that had previously only been disrupted by Dominic giving directions to Ella. Everyone checked their phones and it turned out JD was the lucky winner. "It's Detective Messer. Lindsay Messer," he clarified. 

"Don't answer that," Dominic told him.

"Are you crazy?" JD asked incredulously. "You might have that luxury, but I value my job."

"Give the phone to Ana," Ella told him, locking eyes with him in the rearview mirror as they were stopped at a red light. "She can talk her way out of anything."

"You make that sound like a bad thing," Ana protested, holding out her hand for the phone anyway. JD looked at Ella for a long second before handing it over.

"Hey, Mom," Ana greeted, as if her mother were calling to ask about her day. "No, you dialed the right number, but I'm here with him and I wanted to talk to you…Yeah, Dom and Jack are here, too, and Ella…We're on our way to the deaf community center to ask a few questions…I'm sure we're on a wild goose chase, but we didn't want to sit around and do nothing…Us, getting in trouble? Of course not. Dom's just antsy and we're going along to make sure he doesn't cause trouble and stub a toe or something and have to go on the disabled list…I promise, we'll call if we find one dust mote out of place…Okay, love ya, Mom." The phone call ended and JD looked at Ana like she was something from outer space. "What?" she asked as she gave the phone back to him.

"Not everyone is used to your ability to talk at warp speed and verbally maneuver others into doing your bidding, hon," Jack teased her, putting an arm around her shoulders. He looked to JD who was sitting alone in the middle seat between Ella and Dom up front and Jack and Ana in the back. "You should see her with suspects. Outside of the ones you get ten seconds after you put the guy in the interrogation room because he's so scared, she clocks the fastest confessions of anyone in the Bureau."

Dom wasn't paying attention to the conversation behind him anymore. Staring out the window of the vehicle he prayed that Ana had lied to their mom, that this wasn't a wild goose chase. Something in his gut told him they didn't have the time to waste.

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Their group entered the community center with JD up front. It had been decided in the car that he would take the lead since he was the only one who technically had any kind of jurisdiction. "Detective Deveraux, NYPD," he identified himself, holding up his badge to the receptionist who wasn't Charity Connors. The woman looked with wide eyes at the five people in front of her, four of them with guns on their belts. She rapidly began signing at them.

"She doesn't read lips well," Dominic translated. He began signing back to her, talking out loud simultaneously which enabled everyone else to know what he was saying. "Have you seen Charity Connors lately?" His heart beat faster at her answer. "She says Connors was here earlier today." He moved his hands again. "Was anyone with her?"

The woman nodded as she signed. "That's all? There was no one else?" Dominic asked her.

"What? Who was she with?" Ana asked since Dominic had failed to translate that part. "Dom?" she prodded again when he didn't immediately respond.

"Just a sec," he told her, concentrating on what he was signing and on what the receptionist was trying to tell him. Eventually he turned to the group. "She saw Connors here with Jim, but she hasn't seen anyone else unusual. She asked them why they were here so early in the day especially when it was Connors' day off, but they brushed off her questions and left pretty quickly. She doesn't know where they went."

"Shit," JD swore. "I'll get an APB out for Connors' car."

Ella noticed Dom's confused look. "You should have paid better attention in the car on the way over."

"What? Why?" He wasn't going to protest an all points bulletin being put out on Connors, but he was somewhat perplexed at how Deveraux suddenly thought they had enough information to do that.

"Because then you would know why hearing that Connors was with Jim has us concerned," Ana told him. "JD told us that Kaile and Scagnetti went incommunicado right after they got to Jim's place this morning to talk to him. When JD followed them over there after he couldn't get a hold of either Scags or Kaile, all he found in the apartment were their phones. Added to that the fact that Mom and Uncle Sheldon think our killer might be a woman and you can see how we might be concerned."

The color drained from Dominic's face and he felt like his knees might buckle. Jack obviously thought they would since he moved closer to support him in case he did fall. "Then where the hell are Kaile and Scagnetti?" Dom asked almost frantically.

"That's what we have to find out," Ella told him. She gestured towards the receptionist who looked about as pale as Dominic. "Ask her exactly what Connors and Jim said when they were here earlier."

Dominic shook his head, desperately trying to clear his thoughts enough to be able to sign. After a few moments of signing back and forth with the scared woman, Dom turned his head to his sister. "She says Connors and Jim were coming out of the basement and that Connors claimed that they were looking through some old stuff down there and discussing whether they thought some of it could be tossed out, which is evidently weird because the center just did a big clean out of their storage spaces about a month ago." His eyes widened as he suddenly realized what that could mean. "Do you think they're here?"

"Only one way to find out. Which way to the basement entrance?" Dominic asked the receptionist who told him and then reached into a desk drawer for a key. Ella took it before he could. "Where's the door?"

"I'll show you," he said, knowing full well what she was doing.

"The hell you will," she snapped. "The situation has changed, Dominic. I will handcuff you to this desk if I have to."

"The desk isn't bolted to the floor. He'd probably just drag it with him and follow us anyway," JD said as he approached, having finished his call.

"Stay out, Deveraux, this doesn't concern you." Dominic wouldn't have been surprised if Ella's eyes had set the NYPD Detective on fire.

"Step back and think, Ell," JD shot back, not even flinching. "Connors is the one we're thinking is the bad guy and she evidently left long ago, which means that there's likely nothing dangerous in the basement. However, if you leave your brother up here and Connors comes back for some reason, suddenly he'll be up here without any backup."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dominic almost burst out laughing at the way Ana's eyes bugged out. Nobody talked that way to Ella. The family didn't because they valued their relationship with her, and everyone else in the world didn't because they valued life and limb. Jack, knowing his fiancé all too well and that she was probably about to say something like, "He's a keeper," put his hand over Ana's mouth.

Obviously not noticing anything beyond Deveraux's eyes, Ella finally relaxed just a smidgen. "Fine. Dominic, tell the woman she should get everyone out of the building, then you tell us where to go, but stay back. Jack, your sole responsibility is watching over Dominic. Ana, you should probably call Mom and let her know what's going on." Everyone obeyed without comment. As they headed down a hallway, approaching the door to the basement, Dominic hoped that JD was right and that there was nothing bad downstairs. And "bad" possibly included finding Scagnetti and Kaile. Not until after Ella had agreed to let Dominic come on the trek to the basement had he realized that there was another reason besides his safety for keeping him upstairs. If they didn't find Kaile alive, Dominic didn't know how he would survive.


	12. Chapter 11

**AN: **Sorry for the delay, but I'm pretty sure we'll be smooth from here to the end which should be in a few days.

My medical knowledge is limited at best, so I apologize if anyone more knowledgeable than me in this area spots a glaring mistake or misconception.

* * *

Kaile felt herself drifting away. _I'm sorry, Dad._ More than anything else she was sorry that she would be leaving him alone. The last thing she heard as she closed her eyes was Scagnetti yelling desperately at her and struggling so much against his restraints that his handcuffs were clanking loudly against the pipe he was bound to. Remembering an old Christmas movie she had watched with her dad when she was little, Kaile wondered whether the sound meant she would be getting her wings… 

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"Clear!" Ana called out from her corner of the basement, bringing her weapon back down. JD, Ella and Jack all chimed in with the same call from the areas they had been searching, so Dominic came forward from where he had waited by the stairs.

"They're not here," Ella commented unnecessarily.

"They have to be, or there has to be some clue to where they went!" Dominic insisted. "Connors wouldn't have brought Jim here for nothing."

"It's possible she just hid some money or something here, Dom," Ana reasoned, putting a hand on his arm, but he didn't want the comfort and shook her off.

"No! You guys can leave, but I'm staying here and checking every crevice if I have to. You all know as well as I do that there are secret passageways and rooms built into many of New York's old buildings like this one. I'm not giving up on them."

"And we are?" Ell asked, eyes flashing at his implication. She stepped right up to her older brother. "Have you ever thought that by wasting time here we're taking longer to find them?"

"I didn't say you were giving up on them, Ella." Maybe subconsciously he had thought it, but deep down he didn't really think anyone in their group would ever give up on Kaile or Scagnetti. He knew they were just thinking with the cool heads that their various law enforcement agencies had taught them to have, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that they were there for a reason. "But I don't think we're wasting time. There haven't been any other leads to try-"

"We don't know if there were any other leads because we haven't been in the information loop, Dominic," Ell said calmly, regaining her standard control.

"Shut up, you two," JD suddenly broke in.

"Excuse me?" Ell asked incredulously as they turned towards the NYPD detective.

"I said shut up," he repeated from where he stood at the far end of the room looking down at the floor.

Dominic's heart pounded as he waited. And then suddenly he heard it, too. "Was that a clanging?"

JD looked up. "I think so. It's coming from this pipe here." He indicated one that ran from the floor up to and through the ceiling. "And I think it's coming from below." He took his gun and clanked out the standard S.O.S. signal as everyone else crowded around. After a few seconds of silence, Deveraux repeated his action, this time a little harder. After a few more seconds, the longest seconds of Dominic's life, they got a response.

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Sheldon held onto the car door as the patrol officer driving took the last turn to the community center. As soon as Ana had called in, they had all left Lindsay's office to follow the kids on their lead. Not wanting to risk any of them driving in their distress, Mac had called in for a couple of black and whites to drive them. The squad cars were ready at the front door of the lab by the time they took the elevator all the way down.

The patrol car ahead screeched to a halt, Don jumping out of it almost before it came to a complete stop. Danny and Lindsay weren't far behind and seconds later Sheldon and Mac got out of their car to follow the others into the deaf community center.

The sight that greeted them would likely stick in his mind forever. Ana and Jack were leading the group with Ella and JD in the back escorting a shaky Scagnetti. Between those two groups was Dominic carrying Kaile who was limp and pale, her head lolling back lifelessly against Dom's arm. Hawkes flashed back through some of the death he had seen over the years because his niece looked like she was already gone.

"She's still alive and we've got an ambulance on the way," Ana told everyone. Sheldon steadied himself and moved forward quickly as Dominic practically collapsed, more from the emotional weight than the physical, falling onto his knees with Kaile still in his arms and Don kneeling next to him.

"Okay, guys, lay her flat," Hawkes commanded as he knelt down. The men seemed somewhat relieved to just have someone tell them what to do and did as Sheldon instructed. "Ana, Jack, find some towels or something, anything that will soak up blood well," Sheldon barked out. He wasn't a commanding person by nature, but medical situations like this were when Mac would say that Sheldon's inner drill sergeant came out. "Dominic, raise up her legs so we can get more blood flowing towards her heart and her head," he ordered next while he checked Kaile's pulse and breathing. "Don, keep pressure around her wrists until those towels get here." He was proud that his nieces and nephew had remembered their first aid training. What must have been Dominic and Deveraux's ties were tied as improvised tourniquets around Kaile's arms and what looked to be their cotton undershirts were currently around her wrists and already soaked almost completely through with Kaile's blood. He took a quick look under one of the t-shirt bandages before putting it back down and letting Don reapply pressure.

"What the hell happened?" Hawkes asked Scagnetti. "With that kind of wound she shouldn't be losing this much blood."

"She was drugged," Scagnetti told him while rubbing his own wrists which sported the beginnings of bruising. "I have no idea with what."

"It must have been something that thinned her blood and is making her bleed more profusely than she would otherwise." Ana and Jack approached with some towels that Sheldon quickly switched out the t-shirts for just as the paramedics came rushing in. "We need to scoop and run, gentlemen," Hawkes ordered. He rattled off the vitals he had managed to take as he helped to move Kaile onto the stretcher, then they quickly wheeled her out to the ambulance. He got in and continuously applied pressure to Kaile's wounds as one of the paramedics efficiently began hooking her up for a blood transfusion. Don hopped in and the second paramedic slammed the ambulance doors before coming around and climbing into the driver's seat.

As they started to drive away with lights flashing and sirens blaring, Sheldon glanced up and out the windows in the back of the vehicle. His heart clenched at the looks on the faces of his family. From stoic to desperate they all gazed after the ambulance, Ana and Lindsay clutching Jack and Danny respectively, Ella holding herself up but subtly receiving the support Deveraux gave her with a hand on her shoulder, Scagnetti standing near Mac and probably already telling him what had happened. In front of the group was Dominic standing with his arms hanging limply and a devastated, lost look that eerily reminded Sheldon of another day involving Kaile.

Looking over at his longtime friend who was talking to his daughter and trying to wake her up, Hawkes remembered when Don had worn a look much like Dominic's the day Kaile Maka had died. That day there hadn't been anything anyone could do, but Hawkes was determined that this day would be different. This day there would be reason for that look to dissolve into relief rather than having to fade slowly away with time.


	13. Chapter 12

**AN:** There are two more chapters after this, but they are done so you will see them soon. :)

Warning: There is some mild language in this chapter, really just one word used about two or three times.

* * *

Dominic didn't look up as someone sat down in the chair next to his in the waiting room. He couldn't stop staring at his hands. Despite his frantic attempts to wash Kaile's blood off, traces of it still remained. Or maybe it was just in his head. When Uncle Sheldon finally came into the hospital restroom looking for him and found him scrubbing his hands raw, he had a sympathetic look that said to Dominic that he must be overcompensating and there wasn't anything left to get off.

It was probably the guilt getting to him, the metaphorical blood that he felt he had on his hands. Dammit, if he hadn't made Kaile feel so guilty about questioning Jim Munson, maybe she wouldn't have gotten into trouble. Scagnetti had told them all back at the community center what had happened. He didn't say it explicitly, but Dominic could read between the lines. Kaile had wanted to question Jim as soon as possible, she was the one who made the decision to go to his place, and it was all likely because Dominic had made her feel bad about the situation when she had just been doing her job.

"It's not your fault." Dominic finally looked up at the person next to him, slightly startled at how it seemed like someone had been reading his thoughts. He met the blue eyes of his father, looking into the face that he would surely resemble in thirty years. Dominic opened his mouth to refute the statement, but was cut off. "She was just doing her job, son. Getting injured is unfortunately a hazard of the occupation."

Dominic leaned back in his chair and stared across the room while rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, unconsciously mimicking a move his father did often. "But this particular hazard might have been avoided if she didn't feel like she had to prove herself to me." His parents knew about his last argument with Kaile. On the ride to the hospital from the community center, his mother had managed to pull it out of him because he had been too numb to deflect her questioning.

"Bullshit." Dom's head snapped around to look at his father. "I'm sure your argument was in the back of her mind, but she's a good cop, Dominic. Don't for one second think that she would let personal issues get in the way of that." Dom looked away and contemplated his father's words. He did have a point. Dominic had never doubted Kaile's abilities as a patrol officer and then a detective. His father put a hand on his shoulder. "She got blindsided. It happens."

"Still sucks," Dominic groused.

"That it does," Danny agreed. "But it's the price of loving a strong woman." He paused for a moment. "I can still remember the first time your mother really scared the crap out of me." Dominic turned in interest to his father. He knew a lot of stories about his parents, but this sounded like one he had never heard. "We had a hostage situation with a deadline that didn't give us enough time to get an undercover cop to the location. So, your mom volunteered to go in because she fit the general profile of the person the bad guys were expecting." Dom watched as his father gazed off into the past. "Her cover was blown pretty quickly and at one point she had a gun pointed at her head. But your mom, she just dropped the flash bang we had set her up with and shielded the hostage until the room was secure. When I found her in the smoke holding her ears against the ringing, I thought I'd faint from relief. Thankfully I didn't, but I held onto her long enough for your Uncle Don to have to break us up."

Dominic winced involuntarily at the mention of his uncle. "He's going to kill me, isn't he?"

His father quirked an eyebrow. "You saved his daughter. That trumps pretty much everything, Dominic."

Restless, Dom got up and began pacing in front of the chairs. "For now, maybe. But how long until Kaile and I argue again and then Uncle Don gets ticked at me for it? I've always felt bad when I've caused tension between him and Kaile because I know how close they are and also how I would feel if someone tried to cause problems between me and you and Mom. But that's what Kaile and I do, we fight all the time." He ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe she's better off without me."

"The hell she is," Danny told him, standing up and blocking Dominic's way. "You guys fight like your mother and I do. We tease, we push, but underlying that we know we love each other and that the arguing is just how we interact. I'm Italian, I wouldn't know how to interact without that kind of element, and thankfully I was able to find a woman who could throw it right back at me." He put his hands on Dominic's shoulders. "And you didn't see Kaile months back after the two of your broke up for good. She hasn't been the same since. You guys are two halves of one whole, you always have been."

His father was making an impact, but Dominic still couldn't quite believe he hadn't screwed up everything forever. "I just…I don't know, Dad."

Danny looked sympathetically at his oldest child. "And you won't know until you talk to her. Don's had enough time with her, I'm sure he won't mind if you go into her room."

"Won't the others want to see her, too?" He looked around and realized for the first time that he and his father were alone in the waiting room.

"Mac is keeping track of the search for Connors and Jim, your mom is coordinating the processing of the various scenes, your Uncle Sheldon and Aunt Tessa are handling the media circus, and I think your siblings and your other cousins are off calling people to let them know what happened." He smirked at Dominic. "You're out of excuses for not going in there, so suck it up, son, and work things out with Kaile."

CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY

Kaile slowly rose to consciousness and opened her eyes to find her father holding her hand. "Hi, Dad," she croaked, her throat completely dry.

Don Flack smiled gently and put his free hand against her cheek. "Hi, Princess."

She could feel tears welling up. He hadn't called her that in years. She tried to talk again but couldn't get moisture in her mouth. Her dad figured out the problem and picked up a cup that had a straw in it from a nearby table. He held it for her and she sipped enough to bring relief from the dryness. "Thanks."

Don wiped away a couple of tears that fell. "What are the tears for, kiddo?"

She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry I screwed up, Dad."

"Hey, hey, look at me." She didn't want to, but she obeyed and met her father's gaze. "You didn't screw anything up. Even Scagnetti thinks so," he tried to joke.

"He's just being nice," she replied. She glanced around the room and missed her father's incredulous look at that statement. "How did you guys find me anyway?"

"'We' didn't find you. Dominic did that pretty much all on his own."

Kaile's eyes snapped back to her father's. "Dominic is in New York? Whatever for?"

"Apparently to talk to you." Don brushed some hair back off of her forehead. "I haven't really talked to him. I think he's avoiding me because he thinks I'll be ticked at him. Is there a reason I should be mad at him even though he saved your life?"

She bit her lip and looked away. "No. We had an argument, but it was all my fault. I was worried he wouldn't want to talk to me anymore." She turned back to her father. "Is he really here?"

"He really is." Don looked down, then back up. "You really love him, huh?"

"Yeah, I really do," she admitted quietly. "But I don't know what to do about it, Dad. It just never seems to really work between us. Maybe it's just not meant to be."

"Bullshit," Don told her, unknowingly echoing Danny's line to Dominic. "I don't think either of you have really given a serious relationship a chance to develop. Maybe I'm partly to blame for that, but if the two of you love one another then you need to at least give it a real shot before you throw up your hands." He wiped a couple more tears from her cheek. "But I hope you know that whatever you decide, I'll support you." He grinned slightly, a tear or two in his own eye, which just made her want to cry even more since she had almost never seen her father cry.

"Thanks, Dad. I do know that. You've always been there for me, even when I've messed up." She took a deep breath. "Like with my anger towards Scagnetti. I should have gotten over that years ago. Instead, it takes him and me being held hostage together to get me to come to my senses."

"I knew you would eventually, hon. I always knew you held onto that grudge because of me, but I also recognized that telling you to let it go wouldn't work. You needed to work through it on your own." He paused. "Not that I think having a little anger towards the man is a bad thing. He _is_ a pest."

Kaile laughed. "That he is." That was obviously the conclusion of the serious side of their conversation. They rarely talked long about those kinds of things; it just wasn't how their relationship worked. But she felt immense relief at knowing that she was on solid ground with her father. If everything else in her life went to hell, it would be good to have him to anchor her. And she valued his opinion, so if he thought she and Dominic should give a romantic relationship another chance, then maybe they really could make it work this time.


	14. Chapter 13

**AN: **All that is left after this is the epilogue which I might post later today since I'll be busy tomorrow for the 4th of July. :)

* * *

Dominic knocked lightly on the door to Kaile's hospital room. When he heard a "Come in," he opened the door but didn't enter. He could just see his uncle, but the bathroom obstructed his view of most of Kaile. "I, uh, just wanted to see how things were going in here. Do you need anything?" 

Don smirked, appearing much happier than the last time Dominic had seen him, though his uncle still looked like he had aged years in the last few hours. "Yeah, I need you to talk to my daughter." He leaned down towards the head of the bed for a moment, then stood and approached Dom. "Just treat her right, Dominic, and I won't have a problem with you being with her." With that his uncle nudged him into the room, walked out, and closed the door, leaving Dominic alone with Kaile.

He walked fully into the room and felt his chest tighten slightly at the sight of Kaile. Even though he knew she was going to be okay, it was still disconcerting to see her lying pale in a hospital. He was surprised out of his thoughts when Kaile's eyes opened. For some reason he had thought she was still unconscious, maybe figuring his uncle wouldn't want to leave if she had woken up. "You're awake," he said inanely.

"Yeah," she replied. Dominic stood at the end of her bed and they just gazed at each other, neither knowing where to start. Finally, they both spoke.

"I'm sorry, Dominic--"

"Kaile, I've been an idiot--"

They both stopped and grinned and all of a sudden a good bit of the tension seemed to dissipate. Dominic walked around the bed and sat on the edge, careful not to touch anything that seemed important. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

She smiled weakly. "Okay. Ella wasn't kidding a few weeks ago when she said the drugs are amazing."

Dom chuckled, then sobered as he looked down at her hand which he had unconsciously picked up and gazed at the bandages around her wrist. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you were doing something wrong, Kaile. I need to learn to think before I speak. I know you, I know you wouldn't haphazardly bring in people to question them, but more than that I know that you're a good person and that you do value Jim as a friend. Please forgive me."

Kaile squeezed the hand that held hers. "I do. And I'm sorry that I pick fights with you and then walk away before we finish them and work through whatever the issue is." She sighed despondently. "I've come to realize that it's unfortunately a pattern in my life." She looked off to her left. "And I can't promise that that realization will change the pattern. You might want to bail out now." Her heart felt like it was breaking when he didn't answer right away and she couldn't bring herself to look at him.

Dominic wasn't sure if she was giving him an out because she thought that was what _he_ wanted or because it was what _she_ wanted. But the best way to find out was probably to ask. "Is that what you want, Kaile? Do you want me to bail?"

Kaile shook her head, wiping away the tears that were falling again. "Honestly? No. I just can't guarantee that I'll be worth it, Dominic. I get angry, I lash out, I--"

"Hey, hey, you're acting like I don't participate in our arguments. I'm a Messer, remember? Arguing is a hereditary trait in my family." He leaned over so their faces were no more than a foot apart and gently pulled her face around with his free hand so that she was looking at him. "And you've always been worth it, Kaile Flack. I've just been an idiot and not putting enough effort into our relationship. Part of that for a long time was my youth and wanting to focus on my baseball career; part of it has always been not wanting to mess up what we did have by pushing too hard in case we weren't on the same page." He brought her hand up and kissed her knuckles. "But all that stops right now. I'm laying it all out, K. I love you and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this thing between us work if that's what you want."

She nodded, the tears streaming down her face. "Yeah, that's what I want." He leaned down and she eagerly accepted his kiss. When they broke apart she whispered, "I love you too, Dominic."

His heart swelled. Kaile gave out the occasional "I love you" to a family member, but this kind of deep, heartfelt statement was a rare occurrence. Not that he was exactly used to saying it either. "Glad to hear it." He smiled to lighten the mood a little. "Just promise me that when we do have arguments in the future you won't go to these extremes to bring us together."

She returned the smile. "Well, I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best." She squeezed his hand and became serious again. "Are we going to really be able to make this work, Dominic? It's not like we haven't tried before. And even if you're here in the off season, we still won't be living in the same city seven to eight months out of the year."

"We haven't tried, not really anyway. If we make a concerted effort to keep in touch and see each other whenever possible, yes, I think we can make it work." He took a deep breath. "And, if necessary, I'll retire if that's what it takes because you mean more to me than baseball, Kaile."

She started shaking her head before he finished speaking. "No, you can't retire for me, Dominic. You'll always wonder how far you could have gone, what you could have accomplished, and despite our best efforts that would eventually come between us." She smiled as she reached up with her free hand to cup his cheek. "But the offer is very much appreciated because I know you really mean it." She stroked his face with her thumb. "It would make much more sense for me to leave the NYPD and move to Chicago."

It was Dominic's turn to shake his head. "No way. I know you could be an amazing detective wherever you worked, but you know this city like the back of your hand and it just wouldn't be the same anywhere else. Besides, your dad is here as well as much of the rest of the family." He turned his head slightly to kiss her palm. "Maybe I'll just have to make Dad's dream come true and ask for a trade to the Yankees."

Kaile grinned. "I don't know if the city could contain his ego if that happened. But are you sure that's what you want? I know you love the Cubs. You could have left when your last contract was up, but you stayed for less money than other teams were offering you."

Dominic shrugged. "I do love the Cubs, but I love New York, too. More importantly, I love you, and if leaving Chicago is what it takes to make us work, then I'm willing to do that. My current contract is up in a couple of years, so I could just accept any offer the Yankees make, or the Mets if the Yankees don't want me, instead of angering people by demanding a trade. And anyone who doesn't like my reasons for leaving Chicago then can go screw themselves."

She chuckled. "I'd pay good money to see you tell off the sports reporters." She held his hand in both of hers. "And maybe I could actually take some vacation time and follow you around the country a bit."

He smiled "I'd love to show you around the country." His eyes sparked with mischief. "You know, there is one benefit to all the arguing we do."

Kaile rolled her eyes. She knew exactly where his mind had gone. "Quit while you're ahead, ball boy, and kiss me."

"Yes ma'am," he whispered before kissing her again. Neither noticed the door opening and their fathers poking their heads in before being yanked back out of the room by Lindsay.


	15. Epilogue

**AN:** I may not be describing Yankee Stadium correctly, but I think they're planning on building a new one, so we'll just assume my depiction is what it will be like over thirty years from now. :)

And because I would be remiss without saying it one last time: much thanks to my awesome betas, **printandpolish** and **Kerry Blue**, without whom my work would not be nearly as good and who often give me that extra nudge I need to get past the bouts of writer's block I tend to have. You're the best!_  
_

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_Around a couple of weeks later…_

Kaile looked out over the baseball field on what was turning out to be a perfect night for a ballgame. There was something almost magical about sharing an experience like the All Star game live and in person with tens of thousands of other people. While the luxury box Dominic had gotten their family seats in was really nice, she almost missed sitting down in the regular seats. But she would likely get plenty of chances to do that in the future with all the games she'd be going to.

"Kaile." She turned at the sound of her name.

"Uncle Mac! You made it on time!" She hugged her uncle, then looked around to make sure nobody was listening in before turning back to him. "Did it work out? Is he here?"

Mac smiled. "I met him downstairs myself. He got whisked away pretty quickly for the opening, but then he'll be up here."

Before Kaile could reply, her Uncle Sheldon walked over. "Mac, it's good to see you. I was afraid we'd have to send someone to your office to drag you over here."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," Mac replied before excusing himself to find something to drink.

"How are you doing?" Sheldon asked his niece. "I'm sorry I haven't talked to you in awhile."

"That's okay, Uncle Sheldon, I know how busy you've been helping to wrap up the Connors case." She had obviously been pulled off the investigation after becoming a victim herself. She hadn't liked it, but she understood why it was necessary. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she caused Connors to get off on a technicality.

Not that Connors was likely to be released for any reason. It was probable that she would be institutionalized for the rest of her life since it was pretty clear to everyone that she was criminally insane. After she had thankfully been apprehended without injury to Jim Munson or anyone else, the evidence against Charity Connors had come in fairly quickly from all over the country, including the various names she had used over the years. But not even Kaile could dispute that the woman was too crazy to stand trial. Connors seemed to have devolved even more since being incarcerated, likely because she could no longer see the object of her obsession.

As long as the woman was behind bars for the rest of her life, Kaile didn't care if it was in a mental institution or a prison. Though she did understand the feelings of the families of the many victims who wanted to see Connors get the death penalty. God knew Kaile had experienced what they were going through. But Kaile was trying to focus on the good in her life these days.

"I'm doing fine," she said in answer to her uncle's question. She grinned. "Did you know that your daughter suggested I get tattoos on my wrists to cover the scars?"

Hawkes rolled his eyes knowing exactly which daughter Kaile referred to. "Carla's been trying to convince us it wouldn't be so bad if she got one and she probably figures that if you have one or more that we'll be more receptive. I'm a little worried about what she's going to do when she goes off to college."

Kaile laughed. "At least I think she has good enough taste to not tattoo a guy's name on her body or anything like that."

"Thank God for small favors," Sheldon responded fervently. He glanced over to where Ell and JD were talking with Ana and Jack. "Ella and JD seem to be getting along again."

"Yeah. I'm glad, I think he's really good for her." She had had a talk with Ella, letting her know that she had resolved her big issues with Scagnetti and so it shouldn't be an obstacle between her and JD any longer. She found out later that Scagnetti had talked to Deveraux and essentially told him the same thing, that he appreciated the loyalty, but to not be an idiot and to talk to Ella. Kaile had been a little worried that they would still be stubborn about things, but Ana had soon been able to gleefully report that Ella wanted JD added to the guest list for Ana and Jack's wedding. Tonight was the first time Kaile had gotten the chance to see Ella and Deveraux together in a social setting since before the Connors case and she was happy to see for herself that they seemed to have worked things out.

"And I hear you and Dominic are doing well," Sheldon commented, not so subtly fishing for information.

Kaile smiled in mild exasperation. Every member of her family had been asking about her and Dominic, but for now she didn't mind too much talking about it. "We're good. It'll be nice to hang out with him tonight after the game and tomorrow before he has to fly back to Chicago." Even with her time off for her injuries, she hadn't managed to fly out to any of Dom's games because she had been needed in New York to testify in grand jury hearings for the Connors case. She was back at work already and glad to be doing the job she loved, but she had already cleared a week in late August to stay in Chicago while Dominic had a long home stand. They talked nearly every day and left messages, texts or e-mails when they couldn't manage to catch each other on the phone, but it would be great to spend some real time with him.

"I'm happy to hear you guys have worked things out." He smirked. "You know your dad is getting a lot of ribbing about you dating a Messer, don't you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he's let me know. He says I owe him for it too." She knew her father's moaning and groaning was just for show. He was happy for her, but he had to put up a token protest that she was dating the son of Danny Messer. _It's the principle of the thing_, he had told her. She had rolled her eyes then too, but didn't say anything. She knew her Aunt Lindsay and Aunt Tessa were doing their best to keep their husbands from ribbing her dad too much.

Hawkes glanced out at the field. "It looks like they're about ready to get the opening ceremonies started. I should probably head back to the other box and help your aunt schmooze. Will you make sure my children head over there to at least make an appearance at some point?"

Kaile leaned forward to hug her uncle. "Yeah, I'll get them over there eventually if they don't go on their own." She didn't envy Will and Carla at all and she knew Shayna had avoided the game partly because she didn't want to make an appearance as the Councilwoman's daughter. Kaile would choose being the daughter of a Deputy Chief of Detectives over a politician any day.

Her father came to stand next to her as the participating players began to be announced. "Have you heard anything about how he's doing?" he asked as Jim Munson was introduced. Kaile waited to reply until the thunderous applause died down a little which took a couple of minutes. The sport and its fans had rallied around Jim when everything came out and it was clear that he had never known anything about what had happened.

"He's still feeling guilty on several levels, but Dominic says his family and friends are helping him through it." The guilt would likely be something Jim Munson would carry for a long time. He couldn't quite get over how he had never noticed that almost all of the women he had had any kind of romantic relationship with over his entire professional career had been murdered at some point or another. He wasn't exactly a playboy, but he was in a profession where it was often hard to keep track of people once you moved away. Kaile knew he also felt bad about not recognizing Charity Connors at some point since she had been around him in some way, shape or form for so long. She had perfected changing her physical appearance through hair color changes, colored contacts, even light plastic surgery, so no one blamed Jim for not connecting her different personas. But it was a burden she knew he still carried and one that wouldn't go away easily. She just hoped he would work it out somehow eventually because he was a good man and didn't deserve the grief.

But her mind was distracted from ruminating on that further as the public address announcer was instructing the crowd to stand for the color guard and the national anthem. The group carrying the flags consisted of a member from each branch of the armed forces and they walked in perfect precision out of the opening in center field. Kaile grinned as she spotted the Navy representative holding the flag of the United States. She wondered who would notice first. Her money was on—

"Oh my god! Is that Devon?" Kaile heard Ella ask. She had figured the sibling closest to Devon would recognize him first. Weeks ago Kaile had asked Mac if he thought it would be possible to pull some strings and surprise Dominic and the rest of the family by having Devon show up at the All Star game when everyone thought he wasn't going to be able to make it. At first they had thought he would just show up in the luxury box at some point during the game, but then the guy who was supposed to have represented the Navy in the color guard during the national anthem had broken his leg. A few more strings pulled and one close call later when Devon had been put on standby for a mission and here they were with Devon walking onto the outfield.

Kaile heard the whole Messer family exclaiming over Devon's appearance, but she was focused on waiting for Dominic's reaction. She almost laughed because he seemed to be focusing on the flag rather than the man carrying it and completely oblivious to the presence of his younger brother. Finally, the PA announcer introduced the representatives of the various branches as a close up of their appropriately serious faces was shown on the big screen, finishing with "And for the Navy, Petty Officer Devon Messer of the SEALs, younger brother of Chicago Cubs shortstop Dominic Messer!"

She did laugh as she saw Dom's head jerk up to the screen to see Devon's face and then back down across the field to where the color guard had stopped. Even from as far away as she was she could tell Dominic was grinning in happiness at the appearance of his brother. He was also probably figuring out why she had been a little evasive in their phone conversations lately. She just wasn't that good at hiding this kind of secret, but she was proud of herself for keeping the exact nature of the secret under wraps even if she had given away that there was a secret in the first place.

When the anthem ended, the color guard marched off the field. Kaile knew that it had already been arranged for Devon to get into the dugout to say hi to Dominic before coming up to the luxury box. She was about to turn and join her family in the celebration over Devon's unexpected appearance when she noticed Dominic turn and look up towards them. He put his hat on and tipped it in thanks before heading into the dugout and picking up a bat since he was the lead off hitter. She blinked back a couple of tears. That was the secret signal he had designated for her. He tried to do it at least once a game when he thought he would be on camera because he knew that even if she couldn't catch the day's game live she would tape it and watch later.

Smiling, she turned to accept hugs from her Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Danny and cousins who had just been told by Mac about her involvement in getting Devon to the game. Kaile had never been happier than she was in this moment. She had somehow managed to work out so many of the problems in her life and for the first time in a long, long time she was truly optimistic about what the future might hold for her.

* * *

**AN:** Thanks to all who stayed with me till the end! And I only mean the end of this story. Believe me, this AU is not done by a longshot. :) If you have any opinions on where I should go next, feel free to review and let me know. I can't promise I will be able to fulfill every wish, but I can say that other people's ideas do usually end up influencing my work. :) 


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